LOVE BETTER THAN KNOWLEDGE

O Thou Eternal One, look down

Upon an erring child of earth;

Thy handiwork with knowledge crown,

Or life will seem of little worth;

By Thine own light illume my way,

And turn this darkness into day.

I hear a whisper in my heart —

“Than knowledge, better far is love;

Thy knowledge here is but in part,

The perfect waits for Thee above:

Walk now by faith, and leave to me

The things now wrap'd in mystery.”

Weighed down with mysteries profound

I lean upon Thy loving breast;

The great unknown still girts me round,

But Thou art mine, and here I rest;

Unsolved the mysteries remain;

But they no longer give me pain.

My finite mind may never grasp

The thought of Thy immensity;

But I Thy hand more firmly clasp —

To feel Thee near suffices me;

For Thou art knowledge, power, and love,

The same in earth and heaven above.