The Lost Sheep

Thou grantest ease of heart, O Lord,
And them that wander in distress
Thou gatherest at thy knees...
Thou leadest thy lost sheep apart
Into the paths of pleasantness,
Into the paths of peace.

The Valley of Death was dim, O Light,
And vast the waste of vain desires
Where wandered mine unrest
Thou camest o'er the mountain rim,
Thou foundest me amid the briers
To hush me on thy breast.

O calm, O joy, to lie, O Love,
One moment held against thy heart
In breathless rapt amaze!...
I dared to think that such as I
Should wander nevermore apart,
But pasture in thy rays.

The Valley of Death was cold, O Lord,
And far from thy paternal farms
I mourned and murmured there...
But how forsaken is the fold
Where, cast abandoned from thine arms,
I die of my despair!

..

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