One Life, One Law

What do we know--what need we know
Of the great world to which we go?
We peer into the tomb, and hark:
Its walls are dim, its doors are dark.

Be still, O mourning heart, nor seek
To make the tongueless silence speak:
Be still, be strong, nor wish to find
Their way who leave the world behind--
Voices and forms forever gone
Into the darkness of the dawn.

What is their wisdom, clear and deep?--
That as men sow they surely reap,--
That every thought, that every deed,
Is sown into the soul for seed.
They have no word we do not know,--
Nor yet the cherubim aglow
With God: we know that virtue saves,--
They know no more beyond the graves.