Date:         Wed, 5 Jul 2006 20:45:16 -0400
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      The Sons of Martha
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For mysterious reasons I am moved to submit this 1907 work of Rudyard
Kipling.  I have never read it without tears --  sometimes a drop,
occasionally a flood.  More than you wished to know, perhaps.

david


The sons of Mary seldom bother, for they have inherited
    that good part;
But the Sons of Martha favour their Mother of the
   careful soul and the troubled heart.
And because she lost her temper once, and because she
   was rude to the Lord her Guest,
Her Sons must wait upon Mary's Sons, world without
   end, reprieve, or rest.
It is their care in all the ages to take the buffet and
   cushion the shock.
It is their care that the gear engages; it is their care that
   the switches lock.
It is their care that the wheels run truly; it is their care
   to embark and entrain,
Tally, transport, and deliver duly the Sons of Mary by
   land and main.

They say to mountains, "Be ye removed." They say to
   the lesser floods, "Be dry."
Under their rods are the rocks reproved-they are not
   afraid of that which is high.
Then do the hill-tops shake to the summit-then is the
   bed of the deep laid bare,
That the Sons of Mary may overcome it, pleasantly
   sleeping and unaware.
They finger death at their gloves' end where they piece
   and repiece the living wires.
He rears against the gates they tend: they feed him hungry
   behind their fires.
Early at dawn, ere men see clear, they stumble into
   his terrible stall,
And hale him forth a haltered steer, and goad and turn
   him till evenfall.
To these from birth is Belief forbidden; from these till
   death is Relief afar.
They are concerned with matters hidden - under the
   earthline their altars are-
The secret fountains to follow up, waters withdrawn to
   restore to the mouth,
And gather the floods as in a cup, and pour them again
   at a city's drouth.

They do not preach that their God will rouse them a
   little before the nuts work loose.
They do not teach that His Pity allows them to drop
   their job when they dam'-well choose.
As in the thronged and the lighted ways, so in the dark
   and the desert they stand,
Wary and watchful all their days that their brethren's
   day may be long in the land.

Raise ye the stone or cleave the wood to make a path
   more fair or flat -
Lo, it is black already with blood some Son of Martha
   spilled for that!
Not as a ladder from earth to Heaven, not as a witness
   to any creed,
But simple service simply given to his own kind in their
   common need.

And the Sons of Mary smile and are blessed - they
   know the Angels are on their side.
They know in them is the Grace confessed, and for
   them are the Mercies multiplied.
They sit at the Feet - they hear the Word - they see
   how truly the Promise runs.
They have cast their burden upon the Lord, and - the
   Lord He lays it on Martha's Sons!




--
David Beierl - Providence RI USA -- http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage," '85 GL "Poor Relation"