Season of the Soul: Ungratefulness

Gratefulness

Hannah presents Samuel to Eli

1 Samuel 1:26-28

Stained glass window

St Peter's Anglican Church,

Glenelg, South Australia

UNGRATEFULNESS

Lord, with what bounty and rare clemency
Have you redeemed us from the grave!
If you had let us run,
Gladly had man adored the sun,
And thought his god most brave;
Where now we shall be better gods than he.

You have but two rare cabinets full of treasure,
The Trinity, and Incarnation:
You have unlocked them both,
And made them jewels to betroth
The work of your creation
Unto your self in everlasting pleasure.

The statelier cabinet is the Trinity,
Whose sparkling light access denies:
Therefore you do not show
This fully to us, till death blow
The dust into our eyes:
For by that powder you wilt make us see.

But all your sweets are packed up in the other;
Your mercies thither flock and flow:
That as the first affrights,
This may allure us with delights;
Because this box we know;
For we have all of us just such another.

But man is close, reserved, and dark to thee:
When you demandest but a heart,
He cavils instantly.
In his poor cabinet of bone
Sins have their box apart,
Defrauding you, who gave us two for one.