My Legacy 3481 CONSIDER CONSIDER The lilies of the field, whose bloom is brief We are as they; Like them we fade away, As doth a leaf. Consider The sparrows of the air, of small account: Whether they fall or mount— Consider The lilies, that do neither spin nor toil, Yet are most fair What profits all this care, And all this coil? Consider The birds, that have no barn nor harvest-weeks; Much more our Father seeks To do us good. Christina Georgina Rossetti [1830-1894] MY LEGACY THEY told me I was heir: I turned in haste, And ran to seek my treasure, And wondered, as I ran, how it was placed,- Of gold, or if the titles of fair lands And houses would be laid within my hands. I journeyed many roads; I knocked at gates; I spoke to each wayfarer I met, and said, "A heritage awaits Me. Art not thou the bearer Of news? Some message sent to me whereby Some asked me in; naught lay beyond their door; But said that men were just behind who bore And so the morn, the noon, the day, were spent, At last one cried, whose face I could not see, "Poor child, what evil ones have hindered thee Hath no man told thee that thou art joint heir With one named Christ, who waits the goods to share?" The one named Christ I sought for many days, In many places vainly; I heard men name his name in many ways; I saw his temples plainly; But they who named him most gave me no sign To find him by, or prove the heirship mine. And when at last I stood before his face, I knew him by no token Save subtle air of joy which filled the place; In solemn silence I received my share, Kneeling before my brother and "joint heir." My share! No deed of house or spreading lands, Heaped up with gold; my elder brother's hands Foxes have holes, and birds in nests are fed: My brother had not where to lay his head. My share! The right like him to know all pain Which hearts are made for knowing; The right to find in loss the surest gain; The Celestial Surgeon In bitter tears; the right with him to keep My share! To-day men call it grief and death; I thank my Father with my every breath, 3483 And through my tears I call to each, "Joint heir With Christ make haste to ask him for thy share." Helen Hunt Jackson [1831–1885] THE STARRY HOST From "God and the Soul" THE Countless stars, which to our human eye First hurled them forth to spin in tireless dance? John Lancaster Spalding [1840 THE CELESTIAL SURGEON IF I have faltered more or less Lord, Thy most pointed pleasure take, Choose Thou, before that spirit die, A piercing pain, a killing sin, And to my dead heart run them in! THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE O THOU great Friend to all the sons of men, We look to thee! thy truth is still the Light Yes; thou art still the Life, thou art the Way And they who dearest hope and deepest pray, Toil by the Light, Life, Way, which thou hast given. Theodore Parker [1810-1860] THE INNER LIGHT Lo, if some pen should write upon your rafter Think you could any memories thereafter Lo, if some strange, intelligible thunder Scarcely I catch the words of His revealing, Lives on my lips and beckons to my hand. Bringing Our Sheaves 3485 Whoso has felt the Spirit of the Highest Cannot confound nor doubt Him nor deny: Yea, with one voice, O world, though thou deniest, Rather the earth shall doubt when her retrieving Ay, though thou then shouldst strike from him his glory, HEREDITY WHY bowest thou, O soul of mine, Crushed by ancestral sin? Thou hast a noble heritage, That bids thee victory win. The tainted past may bring forth flowers, As blossomed Aaron's rod; No legacy of sin annuls Heredity from God. Lydia Avery Coonley Ward [1845 BRINGING OUR SHEAVES THE time for toil is past, and night has come, Last of the laborers, Thy feet I gain, Lord of the harvest! and my spirit grieves Master, behold my sheaves! |