Love is the Lord whom I obey, <br />Whose will transported I perform; <br />The centre of my rest, my stay, <br />Love's all in all to me, myself a worm. <br /> <br />For uncreated charms I burn, <br />Oppressed by slavish fear no more, <br />For One in whom I may discern, <br />E'en when he frowns, a sweetness I adore. <br /> <br />He little loves him who complains, <br />And finds him rigorous and severe; <br />His heart is sordid, and he feigns, <br />Though loud in boasting of a soul sincere. <br /> <br />Love causes grief, but 'tis to move <br />And stimulate the slumbering mind; <br />And he has never tasted love <br />Who shuns a plan so graciously designed. <br /> <br />Sweet is the cross, above all sweets, <br />To souls enamoured with thy smiles; <br />The keenest woe life ever meets, <br />Love strips of all its terrors, and beguiles. <br /> <br />'Tis just that God should not be dear <br />Where self engrosses all the thought, <br />And groans and murmurs make it clear, <br />Whatever else is loved, the Lord is not. <br /> <br />The love of thee flows just as much <br />As that of ebbing self subsides; <br />Our hearts, their scantiness is such, <br />Bear not the conflict of two rival tides. <br /> <br />Both cannot govern in one soul; <br />Then let self–love be dispossessed; <br />The love of God deserves the whole, <br />And will not dwell with so despised a guest.<br /><br />William Cowper<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/divine-love-endures-no-rival/
