Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903.

By George Herbert (1593–1633)

The Elixir


TEACH me, my God and King,
In all things Thee to see,
And what I do in anything,
To do it as for Thee:

Not rudely, as a beast,	5
To run into an action;
But still to make Thee prepossest,
And give it his 1 perfection.

A man that looks on glass,
On it may stay his eye;	10
Or if he pleaseth, through it pass,
And then the heav’n espy.

All may of Thee partake:
Nothing can be so mean,
Which with his tincture, for Thy sake, 2	15
Will not grow bright and clean.

A servant with this clause
Makes drudgery divine:
Who sweeps a room, as for Thy laws,
Makes that and th’ action fine.	20

This is the famous stone
That turneth all to gold;
For that which God doth touch and own
Cannot for less be told.

Note 1. Its. [back]

Note 2. Line 15.—For Thy sake is the “tincture” which makes every action bright, the “clause” that makes drudgery divine. [back]