| Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907. | | | The Rivulet (1871).
IV. “Dismiss me not” | | By Thomas Toke Lynch (1818–1871) |
| | | DISMISS me not Thy service, Lord, | |
| But train me for Thy will; | |
| For even I in fields so broad | |
| Some duties may fulfil; | |
| And I will ask for no reward, | 5 |
| Except to serve Thee still. | |
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| How many serve, how many more | |
| May to the service come; | |
| To tend the vines, the grapes to store, | |
| Thou dost appoint for some: | 10 |
| Thou hast Thy young men at the war, | |
| Thy little ones at home. | |
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| All works are good, and each is best, | |
| As most it pleases Thee; | |
| Each worker pleases when the rest | 15 |
| He serves in charity: | |
| And neither man nor work unblest | |
| Wilt Thou permit to be. | |
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| O ye who serve, remember One | |
| The worker’s way who trod; | 20 |
| He served as man, but now His throne, | |
| It is the throne of God: | |
| The sceptre He hath to us shown | |
| Is like a blossoming rod. | |
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| Firm fibres of the tree of life | 25 |
| Hath each command of His, | |
| And each with clustering blossoms rife | |
| At every season is; | |
| Bare only, like a sword of strife, | |
| Against love’s enemies. | 30 |
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| Our Master all the work hath done | |
| He asks of us to-day; | |
| Sharing His service, every one | |
| Share too His sonship may. | |
| Lord, I would serve and be a son; | 35 |
| Dismiss me not, I pray. | | | | |
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