Page:Poems Shipton.djvu/154

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When the sneer of the scoffer moves thee;
 Meliora! Child, look up!
Follow thy Master's footsteps;
 Drink of thy Master's cup.

"A vessel meet for His service
 The Potter must frame and mould;
There's the fining-pot for the silver,
 And the furnace-flame for the gold:
But One watches o'er the fire—
 A watch that thou canst not share;
Look up! Look up! Meliora!
 The Lord whom thou lov'st is there."

Over the world's wide waters
 The dove could her message bring;
And still at our curtained casement
 A minstrel waiteth to sing.
There's many a bird at the threshold
 Who bringeth a song in the night;
And we praise the love that hath lent him,
 As we follow his upward flight.

Thus often my night-watch keeping,
 In moments with sadness fraught,
Sweet words to my drooping spirit
 Have the billows of ocean brought.