Give Strenuous souls for Belief²
Faith is the Antiseptic of the Soul³
Be mine the Faith whose living Flame
Shall Pierce the Clouds and Banish Night⁴
The first step of Faith is to recognize the Existence
Of the Sacred, Accept it – and Revere it Absolutely⁵
In the seat to Faith Assign’d – where Ask is Have,
Where Seek is Find, where Knock is Open Wide⁶
We have something within us Stronger than
Reality or Probability – and that is Faith in
The meaning & necessity of our Action⁷
A person of Faith needs no Fortress:
They are Not on the Defensive⁸
Walking with Feet Faith-Shod⁹
Thou hast been Faithful over
Little – I Set thee over Much¹⁰
¹ Laura Hershey, Faith
² Elizabeth Barrett Browning, The North and the South
³ Walt Whitman, Introduction to Leaves of Grass
⁴ Arthur Caswell Porter, Faith
⁵ Haruki Murakami tr. Jay Rubin, 1Q84
⁶ Christopher Smart, Song to David
⁷ Hermann Hesse tr. Hilda Rosner, The Journey to the East
⁸ Alan Watts, The Essence of Alan Watts
⁹ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, The Things that Count
¹⁰ Matthew 25:23