A mistress cold and stern!
Can he who owns her rule supreme
From her caresses turn?

O work that Duty shows
In light so fair and clear,
Whoever thy completion knows
Is 'minded heaven is near!

* * * * *

Moses.

In Pharaoh's dazzling court
No work did Moses find
That could heroic life support
And fill his heart and mind.

Beneath their grievous task
Did not his kindred groan?
And a great voice above him ask,
"Dost thou thy brethren own?"

The work which Duty meant
At length he found and did,
And built a grander monument
Than any pyramid.

Sometimes his eyes were dim,
All signs he could not spell;
Yet he endured as seeing Him
Who is invisible.

* * * * *

Discoverers.

In search of greener shores
The Northmen braved the seas
And reached, those faith-illumined rowers,
Our dear Hesperides.

And when Oblivion
Swept all their work away,
And left for faith to feed upon
But shadows lean and gray,

Columbus dreamed the dream
Which fired a southern clime
And hailed a world--O toil supreme!--
As from the womb of Time.

God's dauntless witnesses
For toil invincible,
They gazed across uncharted seas
On the invisible.

* * * * *

God's Order.

In gazing into heaven
In idle ecstacy,
What progress make ye to the haven
Where ye at length would be?

In heaven-appointed work
The sure ascension lies.
O, never yet did drone or shirk
Make headway to the skies.

Who in his heart rebels
Has never ears to hear
The morning and the evening bells
On yonder shores so clear.

For work communion is
With God's one order here,
And all the secret melodies
Which fill our lives with cheer.

* * * * *

David.

In action day by day
King David's manhood grew,
A character to live for aye,
It was so strong and true.

Hordes of misrule became
As stubble to the fire,
Till songs of praise like leaping flame
Burst from his sacred lyre.

He grappled with all rude
And unpropitious things:
A garden from the solitude
Smiled to the King of kings.

And fiercer yet the strife