Follow the Steps Of Your Guide

I said: Let me walk in the field.God said: Nay, walk in the townI said: There are no flowers there.He said: No flowers, but a crown.

I said: But the sky is black, there is nothing but noise and din.But He wept as He sent me back, "There is more," He said. "There is sin."

I said: But the air is thick, and fogs are veiling the sun.He answered: Yet souls are sick, and souls in the dark undone.

I said: I shall miss the light, and friendswill miss me, they say.He answered me: Choose tonight, if I am to miss you, or they.

I pleaded for time to be given;He said: Is it hard to decide?It will not seem hard in heaven to have followed the steps of your Guide.

I cast one look at the fields, Then set my face to the town;He said: My child, do you yield? Willyou leave the flowers for the crown?

Then into His hand went mine, and into my heart came He;And I walk in a light Divine,the path I had feared to see.

- George MacDonald