e has given;
They live on earth in thought and deed as truly
As in his heaven.

--John Greenleaf Whittier.

FURNACE AND HAMMER

Pain's furnace-heat within me quivers,
God's breath upon the flame doth blow;
And all my heart in anguish shivers
And trembles at the fiery glow;
And yet I whisper--"_As God will!_"
And in his hottest fire stand still.

He comes, and lays my heart, all heated,
On the hard anvil, minded so
Into his own fair shape to beat it
With his great hammer, blow on blow;
And yet I whisper--"_As God will!_"
And at his heaviest blows hold still.

He takes my softened heart and beats it;
The sparks fly off at every blow;
He turns it o'er and o'er and heats it,
And lets it cool, and makes it glow;
And yet I whisper--"_As God will!_"
And in his mighty hand hold still.

Why should I murmur? for the sorrow
Thus only longer-lived would be;
Its end may come, and will to-morrow,
When God has done his work in me;
So I say trusting--"_As God will!_"
And, trusting to the end, hold still.

--Julius Sturm.

WITH SELF DISSATISFIED

Not when with self dissatisfied,
O Lord, I lowly lie,
So much I need thy grace to guide,
And thy reproving eye,

As when the sound of human praise
Grows pleasant to my ear,
And in its light my broken ways
Fair and complete appear.

By failure and defeat made wise,
We come to know, at length,
What strength within our weakness lies,
What weakness in our strength;

What inward peace is born of strife
What power of being spent;
What wings unto our upward life
Is noble discontent.

O Lord, we need thy shaming look
That burns all low desire;
The discipline of thy rebuke
Shall be refining fire!

--Frederick Lucian Hosmer.

TOO MUCH SELF

Some evil upon Rabia fell;
And one who loved and knew her well
Murmured that God with pain undue
Should strike a child so fond and true.
But she replied, "Believe and trust
That all I suffer is most just.
I had, in contemplation, striven
To realize the joys of heaven;
I had extended fancy's flights
Through all that region of delights,
Had counted, till the numbers failed,
The pleasures on the blest entailed.
Had sounded the ecstatic