Why do I sleep amid the snows,
Why do the pine boughs cover me,
While dark the wind of winter blows
Across the Narragansett's sea?
sense of right! O sense of right,
Whate'er my lot in life may be,
Thou art to me God's inner light,
And these tired feet must follow thee.
Yes, still my feet must onward go,
With nothing for my hope but prayer,
Amid the winds, amid the snow,
And trust the ravens of the air.
But though alone, and grieved at heart,
Bereft of human brotherhood,
I trust the whole, and not the part,
And know that Providence is good.
Self-sacrifice is never lost.
But bears the seed of its reward;
They who for others leave the most,
For others gain the most from God.
sense of right! I must obey,
And hope and trust, whate'er betide;
I cannot always know my way,
But I can always know my Guide.
And so for me the winter blows
Across the Narragansett's sea,
And so I sleep beneath the snows,
And so the pine boughs cover me.
Roger Williams was an English theologian and early advocate of Native American rights and the abolition of slavery. The Narangassett were a Native American people living in what is now Rhode Island. Williams lived with them, learned their customs and language and after doing so, abandoned his idea of converting them to Christianity.
Author's Note: * "For fourteen weeks he wandered through the dreary forest, sleeping sometimes under a projecting rock or in a hollow tree, living for days together on nuts and dried berries, and sometimes sheltered from the pitiless blast in the smoky cabins of hospitable Indians, and sharing their meagre fare. He had always shown himself friendly to the natives, and had acquired a sufficient knowledge of their language to make known his wants and to converse with them on the great truths of religion."