THE ELIXIR
TEACH me, my God and King,
In all things Thee to see,
And what I do in anything,
To do it as for Thee.
Not rudely, as a beast,
To run into action ;
But still to make Thee prepossest,
And give it his perfection.
A man that looks on glass,
On it may stay his eye,
Or, if he pleaseth, through it pass,
And then the heav'n espy.
All may of Thee partake ;
Nothing can be so mean
Which with this tincture (for Thy sake)
Will not grow bright and clean.
A servant with this clause
Makes drudgery divine :
Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws,
Makes that and th' action fine.
This is the famous stone
That turneth all to gold ;
For that which God doth touch and own
Cannot for less be told.
-George Herbert (1593-1633)
No comments:
Post a Comment