Ah, what if Duty seem
     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
     With mighty foes within,
    Who stormed the fortress of his life
     And triumphed in his sin.

* * * * *