709. What Shall It Profit? by William Dean Howells. Stedman, Edmund Clarence, ed. 1900. An American Anthology, 1787-1900

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

709. What Shall It Profit?

By William Dean Howells


IF I lay waste and wither up with doubt
The blessed fields of heaven where once my faith
Possessed itself serenely safe from death;
If I deny the things past finding out;
Or if I orphan my own soul of One	5
That seemed a Father, and make void the place
Within me where He dwelt in power and grace,
What do I gain by that I have undone?