Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903.
By John Henry Newman (18011890)Chastisement
LORD, in this dust Thy sovereign voice | |
First quickened love divine; | |
I am all Thine,—Thy care and choice, | |
My very praise is Thine. | |
I praise Thee, while Thy providence | 5 |
In childhood frail I trace, | |
For blessings given ere dawning sense | |
Could seek or scan Thy grace; | |
Blessings in boyhood’s marvelling hour, | |
Bright dreams, and fancyings strange; | 10 |
Blessings, when reason’s awful power | |
Gave thought a bolder range; | |
Blessings of friends, which to my door | |
Unasked, unhoped, have come; | |
And, choicer still, a countless store | 15 |
Of eager smiles at home. | |
Yet, Lord, in memory’s fondest place | |
I shrine those seasons sad, | |
When looking up I saw Thy face, | |
In kind austereness clad. | 20 |
I would not miss one sigh or tear, | |
Heart-pang, or throbbing brow; | |
Sweet was the chastisement severe, | |
And sweet its memory now. | |
Yes, let the fragrant scars abide, | 25 |
Love-tokens in Thy stead, | |
Faint shadows of the spear-pierced side, | |
And thorn-encompassed head. | |
And such Thy tender force be still | |
When self would swerve or stray; | 30 |
Shaping to Truth the froward will, | |
Along Thy narrow way. | |
Deny me wealth; far, far remove | |
The lure of power or name; | |
Hope thrives in straits, in weakness Love, | 35 |
And Faith in this world’s shame. | |