BEFORE SLEEP 109

When better, Father, could we ask

Thy care than after righteous task,

The need well met, the dream refused,
The oil not spilled, the clean lamp used ?
Two grey-haired children kneel to Thee,
In suit for fresh felicity,

.Whose married worship to Thine ear,

Allowed, parental, rises clear.

Nor wealth, nor place as gifts Divine

I ask to fall on sons of mine;

But, most of all, a nature sure

To share the heart with rich and poor.
O give them tears! O make them feel
An inward energy to heal,

That never, full of frosty pride,

They pass upon the other side.

Behold these children, Father, God,
Their strip of life so briefly trod ;