23.
Lord, pity us: we have no making power;
Then give us making will, adopting thine.
Make, make, and make us; temper, and refine.
Be in us patience--neither to start nor cower.
Christ, if thou be not with us--not by sign,
But presence, actual as the wounds that bleed--
We shall not bear it, but shall die indeed.
24.
O Christ, have pity on all men when they come
Unto the border haunted of dismay;
When that they know not draweth very near--
The other thing, the opposite of day,
Formless and ghastly, sick, and gaping-dumb,
Before which even love doth lose his cheer:
O radiant Christ, remember then thy fear.
25.
Be by me, Lord, this day. Thou know'st I mean--
Lord, make me mind thee. I herewith forestall
My own forgetfulness, when I stoop to glean
The corn of earth--which yet thy hand lets fall.
Be for me then against myself. Oh lean
Over me then when I invert my cup;
Take me, if by the hair, and lift me up.
26.
Lord of essential life, help me to die.
To will to die is one with highest life,
The mightiest act that to Will's hand doth lie--
Born of God's essence, and of man's hard strife:
God, give me strength my evil self to kill,
And die into the heaven of thy pure will.
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