EMPLOYMENT. F as a flower doth spread and die, good, Before I were by frost's extremity The sweetness and the praise were thine, But the extension and the room, Which in thy garland I should fill, were mine At thy great doom. For as thou dost impart thy grace, The greater shall our glory be : The measure of our joys is in this place, The stuff with thee. Let me not languish then, and spend As is the dust to which that life doth tend, Employment. All things are busy; only I ΙΟΙ Neither bring honey with the bees, Nor flowers to make that, nor the husbandry To water these. I am no link of thy great chain, Lord, place me in thy concert, give one' strain To my poor reed! 102 The same dull Task, and weary Way. THE SAME DULL TASK, AND WEARY WAY. AY after day, until to-day, Imaged its fellows gone before; The same dull task, the weary way, The weakness pardoned o'er and o'er; The thwarted thirst, too faintly felt, Ah, whence to-day's so sweet release? This calm and more than conquering love, With which the tempter dares not cope; This joy that lifts no glance above, For faith too sure, too sweet for hope? The same dull Task, and weary Way. 103 Oh, happy time, too happy change, It will not live, though fondly nursed! Sweet Day, which soon will seem as strange As now the Night which seems dispersed ! Adieu! But, while my heart is warmed, Some heavenly promise let me make : Strong are those vows, and well performed, Which at such times we undertake. IMPERFECTION OF HUMAN SYMPATHY. HY should we faint and fear to live alone, Since all alone, so Heaven has willed, we die, Nor even the tenderest heart, and next our own, Knows half the reasons why we smile and sigh? Each in his hidden sphere of joy or woe, Our hermit spirits dwell, and range apart; Our eyes see all around, in gloom or glow, Hues of their own, fresh borrowed from the heart. And well it is for us our God should feel Alone our secret throbbings: SO our prayer May readier spring to Heaven, nor spend its zeal On cloud-born idols of this lower air. |