HEARTED GOOD
Blestbe the goodness which is spirit-fruitOf reverence as worship is of awe,Till goodness is both ripening and root!For just as truly as that it doth drawIts substance from divineness it must shootBy the same potency of nature’s law.We may dispense the good we never grewAs those who borrow; or we may professThe goodness which we know but never do,And so put on a form of fruitfulness;But ah, ’tis barren-hearted and untrueTo worthiness, whate’er its outward dress!To love as well as practise what is fine,To be what we would fain be taken for,To ripen from the root whose tendrils twineAround the very heart whose currents pourInto the good we do—this is divineAnd living fruit that blesses more and more.
Blestbe the goodness which is spirit-fruitOf reverence as worship is of awe,Till goodness is both ripening and root!For just as truly as that it doth drawIts substance from divineness it must shootBy the same potency of nature’s law.We may dispense the good we never grewAs those who borrow; or we may professThe goodness which we know but never do,And so put on a form of fruitfulness;But ah, ’tis barren-hearted and untrueTo worthiness, whate’er its outward dress!To love as well as practise what is fine,To be what we would fain be taken for,To ripen from the root whose tendrils twineAround the very heart whose currents pourInto the good we do—this is divineAnd living fruit that blesses more and more.
Blestbe the goodness which is spirit-fruitOf reverence as worship is of awe,Till goodness is both ripening and root!For just as truly as that it doth drawIts substance from divineness it must shootBy the same potency of nature’s law.
Blestbe the goodness which is spirit-fruit
Of reverence as worship is of awe,
Till goodness is both ripening and root!
For just as truly as that it doth draw
Its substance from divineness it must shoot
By the same potency of nature’s law.
We may dispense the good we never grewAs those who borrow; or we may professThe goodness which we know but never do,And so put on a form of fruitfulness;But ah, ’tis barren-hearted and untrueTo worthiness, whate’er its outward dress!
We may dispense the good we never grew
As those who borrow; or we may profess
The goodness which we know but never do,
And so put on a form of fruitfulness;
But ah, ’tis barren-hearted and untrue
To worthiness, whate’er its outward dress!
To love as well as practise what is fine,To be what we would fain be taken for,To ripen from the root whose tendrils twineAround the very heart whose currents pourInto the good we do—this is divineAnd living fruit that blesses more and more.
To love as well as practise what is fine,
To be what we would fain be taken for,
To ripen from the root whose tendrils twine
Around the very heart whose currents pour
Into the good we do—this is divine
And living fruit that blesses more and more.