Sunday 5th October - The Elixir

(Toy Henry vacuum cleaner image from advertisement) 

 This poem is a favourite hymn from my childhood;

The Elixir

By George Herbert

Teach me, my God and King,

         In all things Thee to see,

And what I do in anything

         To do it as for Thee.

         Not rudely, as a beast,

         To run into an action;

But still to make Thee prepossest,

         And give it his perfection.

         A man that looks on glass,

         On it may stay his eye;

Or if he pleaseth, through it pass,

         And then the heav'n espy.

         All may of Thee partake:

         Nothing can be so mean,

Which with his tincture—"for Thy sake"—

         Will not grow bright and clean.

         A servant with this clause

         Makes drudgery divine:

Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws,

         Makes that and th' action fine.

         This is the famous stone

         That turneth all to gold;

For that which God doth touch and own

         Cannot for less be told.

I can't think why this hymn caught my attention; was it because of the simplicity of the melody? Or the idea of being able to transform drudgery, like Latin homework, or tidying my bedroom?

I don't remember the second verse - rudely, I suppose, was more likely to mean roughly or unthinkingly than sulkily back when the poem was written.  

There have been many times when I've caught myself humming the tune and dredging the words from my memory.