Seek Those Things Which Are Above

old-fashioned snowdrops

 SEEK THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE ABOVE
by William Newell.
"Alitor petamus, Christo duce."

I saw the mountain oak with towering form
Fall in his pride, the whirlwind's chosen prey,
The lily of the vale outrode the storm,
Shining the lovelier as it passed away.
Friend, seek not happiness in high estate,
To Mary's heart she flies from Herod's palace-gate.

I marked a spendthrift moth, squalid and alone.
With shivering wings; his summer flowers were
dead:
While the blithe bee, making their sweets her own,
Sang in her home of honey, richly fed.
Friend, seek not happiness in fleeting pleasure,
In each good work of life the good God hides her
treasure.

Jeweled with morning dew, the new-blown rose
Brings to the enamored eye her transient dower;
The live sap still runs fresh, the sound root grows.
When all forgotten fades the red-lipped flower.
Friend, seek not happiness in the bloom of beauty,
But in the soil of truth and steadfast life of duty.

Lo! the red meteor startles with his blaze
The gazing, awe-struck earth, and disappears;
While yon true star, with soft undazzling rays,
Shines in our sky through circling months and years.
Friend, seek not happiness in worldly splendor,
But in the light serene of home-joys, pure and tender.

Power has its thorns; wealth may be joyless glitter;
Belshazzar's feast grows dark with fear and sadness;
Friends die, — and beauty wanes, — and cares embitter
The gilded cup ; grief lurks behind our gladness.
Then seek not happiness, in shows of earth,
But learn of Christ betimes the secret of her birth.

Child of the soul, twin-born with Faith and Love
In the clear conscience and the generous heart,
Twin-lived with them, with them she soars above
The earthly names which man from man do part.
Seek thou God's Kingdom; there unsought she's found,
High in a heavenly life, not creeping on the ground.

Hearts set on things above, not things beneath.
Find what they crave around them day by day;
Souls risen with Christ, quick with his Spirit, breathe
The air of heaven, e'en while on earth they stay.
Bearing the cross, the hidden crown they bring.
And at the tomb they hear the Easter angels sing.

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