Classic Poem

O could we learn true sacrifice,
What lights would all around us rise!
How would our hearts with wisdom talk
Along life's dullest, dreariest walk!

The trivial round, the common task,
Would furnish all we ought to ask,—
Room to deny ourselves; a road
To bring us daily nearer God.

Seek we no more: content with these,
Let present comfort, rapture, ease,
As heaven shall bid them, come and go;—
The secret this of rest below.

Only, O Lord, in thy dear love
Fit us for nobler tasks above;
And help us, this and every day,
To live more nearly as we pray!