O love, of pure and heavenly birth! <br />O simple truth, scarce known on earth! <br />Whom men resist with stubborn will; <br />And, more perverse and daring still, <br />Smother and quench, with reasonings vain, <br />While error and deception reign. <br /> <br />Whence comes it, that, your power the same <br />As His on high from whence you came, <br />Ye rarely find a listening ear, <br />Or heart that makes you welcome here?— <br />Because ye bring reproach and pain, <br />Where'er ye visit, in your train. <br /> <br />The world is proud, and cannot bear <br />The scorn and calumny ye share; <br />The praise of men the mark they mean, <br />They fly the place where ye are seen; <br />Pure love, with scandal in the rear, <br />Suits not the vain; it costs too dear. <br /> <br />Then, let the price be what it may, <br />Though poor, I am prepared to pay; <br />Come shame, come sorrow; spite of tears, <br />Weakness, and heart–oppressing fears; <br />One soul, as least, shall not repine, <br />To give you room; come, reign in mine!<br /><br />William Cowper<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/truth-and-divine-love-rejected-by-the-world/
