Think you while loving matter, love is pure;
While clasping things of earth, your wealth secure?
Think you the search for pleasure, happiness,
Or life, is Life, while clothed in mortal dress?
How often we would justify desire.
Possessing loved ones will, we think, inspire
Some endless joy. On worldly pleasure's wings
We soar and dip as mortal reason clings
With eager hold—till fear of loss creeps in.
Then comes, unsought, the plowing discipline
That turns and overturns each thought of ours
Till broken soil is well prepared for showers
That purge our hearts of all the world maintains,
And that alone which God bestows, remains.
Yes, understanding comes—that we may wing
A swift ascent above belief to cling
To God. We learn the love of Love. Within
A consciousness complete with naught of sin
We comprehend, and claim, eternal wealth,
The substance that is Spirit, that is health.
No longer seeking pleasure, joy is ours
Unsought, and far more sweet with all its powers
To give such holy, buoyant happiness
That we, in turn, unchanging Love express.
