Love! if thy destined sacrifice am I, <br />Come, slay thy victim, and prepare thy fires; <br />Plunged in thy depths of mercy, let me die <br />The death which every soul that lives desires! <br /> <br />I watch my hours, and see them fleet away; <br />The time is long that I have languished here; <br />Yet all my thoughts thy purposes obey, <br />With no reluctance, cheerful and sincere. <br /> <br />To me 'tis equal, whether love ordain <br />My life or death, appoint me pain or ease; <br />My soul perceives no real ill in pain; <br />In ease or health no real good she sees. <br /> <br />One good she covets, and that good alone, <br />To choose thy will, from selfish bias free; <br />And to prefer a cottage to a throne, <br />And grief to comfort, if it pleases thee. <br /> <br />That we should bear the cross is thy command, <br />Die to the world and live to self no more; <br />Suffer, unmoved, beneath the rudest hand, <br />As pleased when shipwrecked as when safe on shore.<br /><br />William Cowper<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-acquiescence-of-pure-love/
