| WE suffer. Why we suffer,—that is hid | |
| With God’s foreknowledge in the clouds of Heaven. | |
| The first book written sends that human cry | |
| Out of the clear Chaldean pasture-lands | |
| Down forty centuries; and no answer yet | 5 |
| Is found, nor will be found, while yet we live | |
| In limitations of Humanity. | |
| But yet one thought has often stayed by me | |
| In the night-watches, which has brought at least | |
| The patience for the hour, and made the pain | 10 |
| No more a burden which I groaned to leave, | |
| But something precious which I feared to lose. | |
| —How shall I show it, but by parables? | |
| |
| The sculptor, with his Psyche’s wings half-hewn | |
| May close his eyes in weariness, and wake | 15 |
| To meet the white cold clay of his ideal | |
| Flushed into beating life, and singing down | |
| The ways of Paradise. The husbandman | |
| May leave the golden fruitage of his groves | |
| Ungarnered, and upon the Tree of Life | 20 |
| Will find a richer harvest waiting him. | |
| The soldier dying thinks upon his bride, | |
| And knows his arms shall never clasp her more, | |
| Until he first the face of his unborn child | |
| Behold in heaven: for each and all of life, | 25 |
| In every phase of action, love, and joy, | |
| There is fulfilment only otherwhere.— | |
| |
| But if, impatient, thou let slip thy cross, | |
| Thou wilt not find it in this world again, | |
| Nor in another; here, and here alone | 30 |
| Is given thee to suffer for God’s sake. | |
| In other worlds we shall more perfectly | |
| Serve Him and love Him, praise Him, work for Him, | |
| Grow near and nearer Him with all delight; | |
| But then we shall not any more be called | 35 |
| To suffer, which is our appointment here. | |
| Canst thou not suffer then one hour,—or two? | |
| If He should call thee from thy cross to-day, | |
| Saying, It is finished!—that hard cross of thine | |
| From which thou prayest for deliverance, | 40 |
| Thinkest thou not some passion of regret | |
| Would overcome thee? Thou wouldst say, ‘So soon? | |
| Let me go back, and suffer yet awhile | |
| More patiently;—I have not yet praised God.’ | |
| And He might answer to thee,—‘Never more. | 45 |
| All pain is done with.’ Whensoe’er it comes, | |
| That summons that we look for, it will seem | |
| Soon, yea too soon. Let us take heed in time | |
| That God may now be glorified in us; | |
| And while we suffer, let us set our souls | 50 |
| To suffer perfectly: since this alone, | |
| The suffering, which is this world’s special grace, | |
| May here be perfected and left behind. | |
| |
| —But in obedience and humility;— | |
| Waiting on God’s hand, not forestalling it. | 55 |
| Seek not to snatch presumptuously the palm | |
| By self-election; poison not thy wine | |
| With bitter herbs if He has made it sweet; | |
| Nor rob God’s treasuries because the key | |
| Is easy to be turned by mortal hands. | 60 |
| The gifts of birth, death, genius, suffering, | |
| Are all for His hand only to bestow. | |
| Receive thy portion, and be satisfied. | |
| Who crowns himself a king is not the more | |
| Royal; nor he who mars himself with stripes | 65 |
| The more partaker of the Cross of Christ. | |
| |
| But if Himself He come to thee, and stand | |
| Beside thee, gazing down on thee with eyes | |
| That smile, and suffer; that will smite thy heart, | |
| With their own pity, to a passionate peace; | 70 |
| And reach to thee Himself the Holy Cup | |
| (With all its wreathen stems of passion-flowers | |
| And quivering sparkles of the ruby stars), | |
| Pallid and royal, saying ‘Drink with Me’; | |
| Wilt thou refuse? Nay, not for Paradise! | 75 |
| The pale brow will compel thee, the pure hands | |
| Will minister unto thee; thou shalt take | |
| Of that communion through the solemn depths | |
| Of the dark waters of thine agony, | |
| With heart that praises Him, that yearns to Him | 80 |
| The closer through that hour. Hold fast His hand, | |
| Though the nails pierce thine too! take only care | |
| Lest one drop of the sacramental wine | |
| Be spilled, of that which ever shall unite | |
| Thee, soul and body to thy living Lord! | 85 |
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| Therefore gird up thyself, and come, to stand | |
| Unflinching under the unfaltering hand, | |
| That waits to prove thee to the uttermost. | |
| It were not hard to suffer by His hand, | |
| If thou couldst see His face;—but in the dark! | 90 |
| That is the one last trial:—be it so. | |
| Christ was forsaken, so must thou be too: | |
| How couldst thou suffer but in seeming, else? | |
| Thou wilt not see the face nor feel the hand, | |
| Only the cruel crushing of the feet, | 95 |
| When through the bitter night the Lord comes down | |
| To tread the winepress.—Not by sight, but faith, | |
| Endure, endure,—be faithful to the end! | |
