Christ Is All [poem by Menie Parkes]

[Editor: This poem by Menie Parkes was published in Poems (1867).]

Christ Is All.

If thou wert old and withered,
And care weighed heavy now,
Thine eyes were dim and aching,
And wrinkles on thy brow;
It might be thou couldst easily
Thine every hope recall —
“I would not wait one moment;
No: now, now, Christ is All!”

If thou wert old and sickly,
Each limb alive with pain,
No power to use earth’s gladness,
No strength to rise again;
One unto all a burden,
On whom all pleasures pall —
“Thank God for glowing health and strength
To serve Him! — Christ is All.”

If Poverty had grasped thee
With her relentless hand;
If thou wert struggling blindly
Want’s billows to withstand;
If for a morsel, vainly,
Thou helplessly didst call —
“Oh, all his gifts around me
But reason. Christ is All.”

If Love had hid his bright smiles,
And thou wert doomed to tread
With not a crown of earth’s love
Upon thy weary head;
Thy kind heart disregarded,
Thou mightest on Heaven call,
“Dear hearts make Him the sweeter,
Not mine but ours — our All.”

In youth and age, in pain and pleasure,
In poverty and wealth,
In love, or loneliness and sorrow,
When death draw s near by stealth,
Whatever is, and come what may,
Our truest bliss can never pall;
We are the Lord’s, and He is ours
For ever — All in All.

Source:
Menie Parkes, Poems, F. Cunninghame, Sydney, [1867], pages 110-111