The Strangers

As unto the blind the colors
Of earth and sky and seas,
As unto the deaf the music
Of melodious harmonies,

As unto the dumb the sweetness
Of the songs they have never sung,
As unto the alien the welcome
In the words of another tongue,

So unto those who are strangers
To the covenants of grace,
Who are deaf to the voice of Jesus
And blind to the light of His face,

Who are dumb in the language of heaven
And have never been born again—
To them the things of the Spirit
Are quite beyond their ken.

Oh, the peace and the joy they are missing!
Eternal and infinite loss,
If they seek not the life everlasting
And find not the way of the cross.

—Annie Johnson Flint