The Cup of Happiness

Lord God, how full our cup of happiness!
We drink and drink--and yet it grows not less;
But every morn the newly risen sun
Finds it replenished, sparkling, over-run!
Hast Thou not given us raiment, warmth, and meat,
And in due season all earth's fruits to eat?--
Work for our hands and rainbows for our eyes,
And for our souls the wings of butterflies?--
A father's smile, a mother's fond embrace,
The tender light upon a lover's face?--
The talk of friends, the twinkling eye of mirth,
The whispering silence of the good green earth?--
Hope for our youth, and memories for age,
And psalms upon the heavens' moving page?

And dost Thou not of pain a mingling pour,
To make the cup but overflow the more?

--Gilbert Thomas