FAILURE AND SUCCESS.

It is in failure, in distress,

When, reft of all, it stands alone,

And not in what men call success,

The noble, valiant soul is known.

He who perfection makes his aim

Shoots at a mark he may not reach;

The world may laugh, the world may blame.

And what it calls discretion preach.

And he will fail to win the goal

Which low ambition makes its own;

But, far beyond, his earnest soul

Stands in the light, though all alone.

It was through insult, pain, and loss

That Jesus won immortal power;

Thus the great failure of the cross

Was his triumphant, glorious hour.

Think not of failure or success;

He fails who has a low desire.

Up to the highest ever press,

Still onward, upward, higher! higher!

Make such thy purpose, such thy aim,

That they who watch thy spirit's flight

Shall look to heaven from whence it came,

And loose thee in celestial light.