DRAWING WATER.
I HAD drank with lip unsated
Where the founts of pleasure burst;
I had hewn out broken cisterns,
And they mocked my spirit's thirst.
And I said, Life is a desert,
Hot, measureless, and dry;
And God will not give me water,
Though I pray and faint and die!
Spake then a friend and brother,
"Rise and roll the stone away!
There are founts of life upspringing
In thy pathway every day."
Then I said my heart was sinful,
Very sinful was my speech
"All the wells of God's salvation
Are too deep for me to reach."
And he answered, "Rise and labor!
Doubt and idleness is death;
Shape thou out a goodly vessel
With the strong hands of thy faith! "
So I wrought and shaped the vessel,
Then knelt lowly, humbly there;
And I drew up living water,
With the golden chain of prayer.
Selected.