The Lilies of the Field

Flowers! when the Saviour’s calm, benignant eye
Fell on your gentle beauty--when from you
That heavenly lesson for all hearts he drew,
Eternal, universal, as the sky--
Then, in the bosom of your purity,
A voice He set, as in a temple-shrine,
That life’s quick travellers ne’er might pass you by
Unwarn’d of that sweet oracle divine.
And though, too oft its low, celestial sound
By the harsh notes of work-day Care is drown’d,
And the loud steps of vain, unlistening Haste,
Yet, the great ocean hath no tone of power
Mightier to reach the soul, in thought’s hush’d hour,
Than yours, ye Lilies! chosen thus and graced!