On what is firm, the lust and pride of life!

A mass of men, whose very souls even now

Seem to need re-creating,—so they slink

Worm-like into the mud, light now lays bare,—

Whose future we dispose of with shut eyes

And whisper—"They are grafted, barren twigs,

Into the living stock of Christ: may bear

One day, till when they lie death-like, not dead,"—

Those who with all the aid of Christ succumb,

How, without Christ, shall they, unaided, sink?