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ON CHARLES LAMB'S SONNET, "WORK."

"Who first invented work?" asks Elia, he
    Whose life to an ungenial task was wed,
And answers, "Satan"; but it could not be—
    On idleness his foul ambition fed;
By idleness the heavenly domiciles
    Were lost to him and all his idle crew;
In idleness he hatches all his wiles,
    And mischief finds for idle hands to do.

His business ever was to scamp and shirk,
    And scout the task that too ignoble seemed,
And in snug corners serpentlike to lurk
    Where no one of his presence ever dreamed;
He never knew the zest of honest work,
    Nor ever shall, or he would be redeemed.

WORK.

Not to the Arch-Idler be the honor given
    Of first inventing work, but to his Lord,
Who made the light, the firmament of heaven,
    And sun and moon and planets in accord,
The land and cattle on it, and the sea
    And fish therein, and flying fowl in air,
And grass and herb and fair fruit-yielding tree,
    And man, His own similitude to wear;

Whose works are old and yet for ever new,
    Who all sustains with providential sway,
Whose Son, "My Father worketh hitherto
    And I work," said, and ere He went away,
"Finished the work thou gavest me to do,"
    And unto us, "Work ye while it is day."

THE JOY OF CREATION.

How must have thrilled the great Creator's mind
    With radiant, glad and satisfying joy,
Ever new self-expressive forms to find
    In those six days of rapturous employ!
How must He have delighted when He made
    The stars, and meted ocean with His span,
And formed the insect and the tender blade,
    And fashioned, after His own image, man!

And unto man such joy in his degree
    He hath appointed, work of mind and hand,
To mould in forms of useful symmetry
    Words, hues, wood, iron, stone, at his command
To toil upon the navigable sea
    And ply his industry upon the land.

ADAM.

God made him, like the angels, innocent,
    And made a garden marvellously fair,
With arbors green, sun-kissed and dew-besprent,
    And fruits and flowers whose fragrance filled the air;
Where rivers four meandered with delight,
    And in the soil were gleaming treasures laid,
Good gold and bdellium and the onyx bright;
    And set therein the man whom He had made;

And proved to him by sad experience
    That not in bowers of indolence, supine
On beds of ease, could ev'n Omnipotence
    Work out in man His last and best design;
And in great love and wisdom drove him thence,
    And cursed him with a blessing most benign.

A SHALLOW STREAM.

There is a stream to northward, thinly spread
    Over a shelving, many-fissured shale,
That brawls and blusters in its shallow bed,
    And ends its course inglorious in a swale.
Its babble stirs the laughter of the hills;
    The rooted mountains mock its fume and fret;
And all the summer long the idle mills
    Wait wearily with water-wheel unwet.

Let us not waste our lives in froth and foam
    And unavailing vanity of noise;
"Still waters deepest run"—the ancient gnome
    Pricks well our sham, conceited bubble-toys;
Who serve best here in God's great halidome
    Have volume, depth, serenity and poise.

A FAITHFUL PREACHER.

Let no one say of Christ's Church, "Ichabod,"
    Or deem her strength partaker of decay,
    Or think her trumpet voices fail. To-day
I saw a man who was a man of God,
His feet with gospel preparation shod,
    The Spirit's quick and mighty weapon sway;
    I heard him faithfully point out the way,
To him familiar, which the Master trod.

Intrepid, patient follower of the Lord,
    While such as thou, obedient to His call,
    Living epistles, known and read of all,
Proclaim the wonders of His sacred Word,
No sound of lamentation should be heard,
    No shade of apprehension should appal.

A WISH REBUKED.

If one could have a hundred years to live,
    After the settlement of youth's unrest,
A hundred years of vigorous life to give
    To the pursuit of what he counted best,
A hundred summers, autumns, winters, springs,
    To train and use the forces of his mind,
He might fulfil his fond imaginings,
    And lift himself and benefit his kind.

O faint of heart, to whom this life appears
    Too short for thy ambitious projects, He
Who plied His task in weakness and in tears
    Along the countrysides of Galilee,
And blest the world for these two thousand years,
    Did His incomparable work in three.

THE SABBATH.

Who, careless, would behold a goodly tree
    Or noble palace stricken to decay?
Who would drop precious jewels in the sea
    Or cast rare heirlooms on the trodden way?
Who, but a prodigal in wantonness,
    Would waste his patrimony for swine's food?
Who would his birthright sell for pottage-mess
    But a dull, sensual Esau, blind to good?

Our tree o'ershadowing the sons of care,
    Our palace welcoming the weary guest,
Our precious jewel and our heirloom rare,
    Our birthright and our patrimony blest,
Art thou, to guard and keep for ever fair,
    Sweet Christian Sabbath-day of joy and rest.

MILTON.

Say not that England ever kingless was:
    'Twixt Charles and Charles two royal men appear,—
Cromwell, to give her health with arms and laws,
    And Milton, thou, to speak out loud and clear
For freedom of man's conscience and the state,
    For England and her deeds before the world,
And for the victims of religious hate
    From Alpine summits pitilessly hurl'd.

Thou wast a Champion of Liberty:
    In fair Italian cities thou had'st heard
Her voice upon the north wind summon thee,
    And, like another Moses, had'st preferr'd
Affliction with thy brethren to the lure
Of beauty, art and cultur'd ease secure.

THE THREE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF MILTON'S BIRTH.

(December 9th, 1908.)

"There was a man sent from God, whose name was John."

Three hundred years have left their telltale rings
    Upon the tree of Time since he appeared—
    Milton (to be remembered and revered);
Whose spirit mounted on seraphic wings;
Who saw, though blind, extraordinary things;
    Who wrought in obloquy, and persevered,
    And, Orpheus-like, with his great music reared
A monument surpassing those of kings.

Three hundred years, courageous, lofty soul,
    Hast thou by precept and example taught
    Thy lesson. Have we