Poems (Kimball)/Interrupted Zeal
INTERRUPTED ZEAL
According to the mind of God, our perfection does not depend upon our doing much. This was Martha's error which our Lord Jesus Christ rebuked.—Bourdalour.
LORD, is my service at an end?I am so slow to comprehend!Why comes this pause that seems to sayThou hast no work for me to-day?
Do I not hoard my time for Thee?Do not my hand and heart agreeTo yield to Thee their best, their all?Dear Lord, why hast Thou ceased to call?
There comes no beggar to my gateFor whom my halvèd loaf doth wait;I know no creatures sufferingFor cheer that haply I might bring.
Where lies my load of precious care?Whose are the tears that I might share?Or whose the joy that I might makeMy equal joy for Thy sweet sake?
The world is just ad full of woe,For sin in hand with grief must go;But now the world seems distant grown,And I unheeded and alone.
Ah! now Thou dost Thy will revealTo interrupt my restless zeal,That I in solitude may heedMy own, my all-surpassing need.
"Much serving" often hinders love,And care forgetfulness may prove;The busy hand may cheat the heartThat else might choose the better part.
Who waits in holy idlenessCan never learn to serve Thee less,But rather learns how poor, how vain, Is all he hath accounted gain.
Strive as I may, my every toilSome lurking vanity will spoil;Self-love doth ever enter inTo steal what I for Thee may win.
Then give me, Lord, no work to-day, But give what none can take away,—The portion everymore most sweet,To sit like Mary at Thy feet.
And quicken Thou my inward ear That I like her Thy Word may hear In inward silence that shall drown All voices other than Thine own.
The soul that seeks no end but this The end of zeal can never miss, But even amidst her toil shall be In holy solitude with Thee.