Page:Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier (1895).djvu/466

434   May grace be given that I may walk therein,
 * Not like the hireling, for his selfish gain,

With backward glances and reluctant tread, Making a merit of his coward dread,
 * But, cheerful, in the light around me thrown,
 * Walking as one to pleasant service led;
 * Doing God’s will as if it were my own,

Yet trusting not in mine, but in His strength alone!

morn I prayed, “I fain would see How Three are One, and One is Three; Read the dark riddle unto me.”

I wandered forth, the sun and air I saw bestowed with equal care On good and evil, foul and fair.

No partial favor dropped the rain; Alike the righteous and profane Rejoiced above their heading grain.

And my heart murmured, “Is it meet That blindfold Nature thus should treat With equal hand the tares and wheat?”

A presence melted through my mood,— A warmth, a light, a sense of good, Like sunshine through a winter wood.

I saw that presence, mailed complete In her white innocence, pause to greet A fallen sister of the street.

Upon her bosom snowy pure The lost one clung, as if secure From inward guilt or outward lure.

“Beware!” I said; “in this I see No gain to her, but loss to thee: Who touches pitch defiled must be.”

I passed the haunts of shame and sin, And a voice whispered, “Who therein Shall these lost souls to Heaven’s peace win?

“Who there shall hope and health dispense, And lift the ladder up from thence Whose rounds are prayers of penitence?”

I said, “No higher life they know; These earth-worms love to have it so. Who stoops to raise them sinks as low.”

That night with painful care I read What Hippo’s saint and Calvin said; The living seeking to the dead!

In vain I turned, in weary quest, Old pages, where (God give them rest!) The poor creed-mongers dreamed and guessed.

And still I prayed, “Lord, let me see How Three are One, and One is Three; Read the dark riddle unto me!”

Then something whispered, “Dost thou pray For what thou hast? This very day The Holy Three have crossed thy way.