Bear gently, suffer like a child, Nor be ashamed of tears; Kiss the sweet Cross, and in thy heart Sing of the Eternal Years.
9
Thy Cross is quite enough for thee, Though little it appears; For there is hid in it the weight Of the Eternal Years.
10
And knowst thou not how bitterness An ailing spirit cheers? Thy medicine is the strengthening thought Of the Eternal Years.
11
One Cross can sanctify a soul; Late saints and ancient seers Were what they were, because they mused Upon the Eternal Years.
12
Pass not from flower to pretty flower; Time flies, and judgment nears; Go! make thy honey from the thought Of the Eternal Years.
13
Death will have rainbows round it, seen Through calm contrition's tears, If tranquil hope but trims her lamp At the Eternal Years.
14
Keep unconstrain'dly in this thought, Thy loves, hopes, smiles, and tears; Such prison-house thine heart will make Free of the Eternal Years.
15
A single practice long sustained A soul to God endears: This must be thine--to weigh the thought Of the Eternal Years.
16
He practises all virtue well, Who his own Cross reveres, And lives in the familiar thought Of the Eternal Years.
[37] "It appears that Newman thinks so highly of that poem ["The Eternal Years"] that he asked to have it sung to him during his recent illness, and remarked: '"Lead, Kindly Light" are the words of one seeking the truth. "The Eternal Years" are those of one who has found it.'"--May, 1889, Grant Duff's Notes from a Diary.
Italic text is denoted by underscores and bold text by =equal signs=.
All footnotes and endnotes have been reorganized into a single system of sequentially numbered footnotes.
Every effort has been made to replicate the text as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and other inconsistencies.
Obvious punctuation errors and minor printer errors repaired.
Both Eleison and Eleïson appear in text, left as originally printed.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Dream of Gerontius, by John Henry Newman