"BEG FROM A BEGGAR." "Deark d'on dearka."— Irish Proverb. R. M. MILNES. THERE is a thought so purely blest When evil breaks my spirit's rest, It were not for the rich to blame, But that the veriest needs of life Should be dispensed with freer hand To give the stranger's children bread, your precarious board the spoil, To watch your helpless neighbor's bed, And, sleepless, meet the morrow's toil;The gifts, not proffered once alone, The daily sacrifice of years, — 66 BEG FROM A BEGGAR." 173 And, when all else to give is gone, The precious gifts of love and tears; What record of triumphant deed, Therefore, lament not, honest soul! Manhood is nobler, as thou art; And, should some chance thy coffers fill, Wealth, like all other power, is blind, It is the battle, not the prize, FROM "THE MEN OF OLD." J. G. WHITTIER. WELL speed thy mission, bold Iconoclast! The effigies of old confessors lie, Heard in the slow march of the centuries still! Such were the men at whose rebuking frown, Dark with God's wrath, the tyrant's knee went down; Such from the terrors of the guilty drew The vassal's freedom and the poor man's due. In Heaven's sweet peace!) forbade, of old, the sale Of men as slaves, and from the sacred pale ALMSGIVING. Image of saint, the chalice and the pix, 175 "MAN IS WORTH MORE THAN TEMPLES!" he replied To such as came his holy work to chide. And brave Cesarius, stripping altars bare, And coining from the Abbey's golden hoard The captive's freedom, answered to the prayer Or threat of those whose fierce zeal for the Lord Stifled their love of man, "An earthen dish The last sad supper of the Master bore: Most miserable sinners! do ye wish More than your Lord, and grudge his dying poor What your own pride, and not his need, requires? Souls than these shining gauds he values more; Mercy, not sacrifice, his heart desires!" ALMSGIVING. (AN EXTRACT.) R. M. MILNES. WHEN Poverty, with mien of shame, Believe not either man or book That bids you close the opening hand, And with reproving speech or look Your first and free intent withstand. It may be that the tale you hear It may be that you err to give It may be that the suppliant's life |