Is it not thine, O God, this passing world?
Is it not thine to give it at thy will?
But now thou mad’st it,it was all thine own,
Hast thou not power to bestow it still?
And if thou hast, for whom is it reserved?
Father Eternal! is it not for us?
Was it an empty promise, when thou said’st
All things are yours, since I have loved you thus?
I thought ’twas thine to give me, and I craved
One blessing more than all on earth beside;
I asked it often, and I asked it long,
It was not sin, and yet it was denied.
Did’st thou not hear the still-repeated prayer?
Pray’d I amiss, as if the due were mine?
Nor simply resting on thy love, exclaimed,
Fulfil thy promise, Lord, for I am thine?
Ah, foolish! He, who from the ocean’s depth,
Through roaring waters heard the prophet’s prayer;
Who marks the first, faint breathings of desire,
Can never deafen his paternal ear.
He heard me,yes, he listened and he heard,
And held the blessing in his own right hand:
Whatever barred me from the good I sought,
Had sunk to nothing at his sole command.
He heard and might have granted,but he marked
The secret reservation of the soul,
The wish, that almost to itself unknown,
Forbade the prayer that on the accents stole.
He marked the feeling that himself inspired,
He knew the heart he moulded,and he knew
That while my lips the warm petition breathed,
I did not wish it if he wished not too.
‘Twas so, most Merciful! I do not say
I loved thy will more than the thing I sought,
I asked an earthly good, but thou perceiv’dst
Something was dearer, though I said it not.
Thou knew’st I would not have it, might it mar
The better bliss to which my hopes aspire;
And mercy yielding what thy wisdom knew,
Denied the prayer, to grant me the desire.
(Caroline Fry)
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