The Elixir

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 it 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.

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