THE ANCIENT FAITH RECLAIMED!

Up perpendicular ledges and towering granite cliffs

We’re snatched at jutting projections and clung to cloud-

wrapped rifts!

Souls despairing in anguish, we’ve struggled in hopeless

dismay,

Seeking His trail to follow as we’ve climbed our rugged way!

Never were craigs so awesome!  Nor ever a mountain so

steep!

Nor ever a need so urgent a rendezvous to keep!

Of’t with torn, bleeding bodies we’ve clung to some swaying

ledge,

Or only held on blindly to some crumbling, precarious edge!

We’ve snatched at roots or gravel to feel them give way at

our touch!

We’ve asked so very little!  And needed that “little” so much!

Once, hurled back by a landslide, we lay bruised against a

tree,

While above, on the top of that mountain, awaited a destiny!

A thousand times we were hurled back in a broken,

anguished heap!

A thousand pit-falls overcome, our rendezvous to keep!

A million hazardous testings we faced in that upward climb!

A million sobbing heartbreaks, etched deep on the face of

“time”!

The top of the mountain was cloud-banked, the goal obscure,

unclear –

It was only a dream, seen vaguely, as we climbed those

crags in fear!

‘Twas only a vision beckoned, above the dreary world—

Only a vision of glory that ever its promise unfurled!

At last!  Aft’r years of struggle!  A seeming eternity!

Our goal loomed high above us!  Our rendezvoused destiny!

Inch by inch!  Slowly!  Soul-searing!  We grappled with

elements wild!

Exiled!  Cast out in discredit like destiny’s orphaned child!

So many times, on that last cliff, we were hurled to the

ledge below!

But somewhere along that upward climb our “faith” had

advanced to “KNOW”!

Up that ledge we dug our way!  Up!  Up the mountain so

steep!

Up! Up through those exiled years of life, our destiny to

keep!

Our strength increased with our progress!  Joy became

mighty and strong!

In danger, or heart-rending setbacks, we’d lift up our hearts

in song!

When we’d finally reached the top, place of our noble,

destined tryst,

We breathed in humbled, breathless awe as we kneeled at

the feet of Christ!

“You’ve traveled the road I mapped for man, the way to

overcome!

You’ve learned to hear the voice of God!  And let His will

be done!

The road I left the map for, that age-dimmed, forgotten Way

You have blazed anew in power more brilliant than the day!

Turn!  And look back where you’ve traveled!  Look back

where the mountain has been!

There’s my open highway of glory you’ve rebuilt for the

race of men!

(From:  Secrets of Eternity)