p. 390 | UNQUESTIONING by Clara J. Denton

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · June 17, 1880

FromThe Review and Herald, Vol. 55, No. 25

UNQUESTIONING

By Clara J. Denton

Dingy and old the room, Dark with the winter’s gloom; Like a dusty vail, by fairies flung, Over the windows the cobwebs hung, And the dust lay everywhere.

Litter covered the floor, Smoke the low walls o’er, And over the work-bench, brown and old, A toiler bent, while the long hours tolled, And from “sun to sun” wrought on.

“What mak’st thou, friend?” I said. Then raised the gray, old head: “I cannot tell, for these delicate things From the inner room the master brings, And I polish them one by one.

“I groove each part with care, I make each corner square For the master’s hand.” “But wish you not to know Their future guise,” I asked, “and where they go?” “Nay, ’twere folly so,” he said.

“But,” I queried again, “Have you no wish that men May tell afar of your delicate skill?” “Nay, I toil but to do my master’s will,” And he smiled with a radiance rare.

Oh, lesson rare for me, Toiling unceasingly, Yet crying oft, with impatience sore, Because my work ne’er cometh to more Than pieces of what I would!

But if my Master shall tenderly take My humble tasks, Bidding them at last Into fair proportions grow, Because they were wrought for his dear sake, I’ll be content to have it so. —Clara J. Denton, in N. Y. Churchman.