Confidence

The faintness of my heart When strife and evil rose, The worse and lesser part Which it for ever chose, God knows.

The passions that have bound My soul with chains of earth, The sorrows that have found Their home with me since birth, The dearth

Of all these nobler things That make existence fair, The stain of sin that clings Until we cease to care For prayer,

All this must I atone: And though eternal woes My banished soul alone, Must bear without repose, Yet I am not afraid To know God knows.