I enjoyed that!  But give us some warning next time.  I had to shift out of
my usual speed reading mode and read your note 2 or 3 time before it
began to sink in.  But happy I did.

It seems you've been AWOL for a while, David.  Missed your input.

//Jack

On 5 Jul 2006 at 20:45, David Beierl wrote:

> 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 The secret fountains to follow up, waters withdrawn to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"
>
>
> --
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