Vanity of the Creature Sanctified

I

Honey though the bee prepares,
An envenom’d sting he wears;
Piercing thorns a guard compose
Round the fragrant blooming rose.

II

Where we think to find a sweet,
Oft a painful sting we meet;
When the rose invites our eye,
We forget the thorn is nigh.

III

Why are thus our hopes beguiled?
Why are all our pleasures spoil’d?
Why do agony and woe
From our choicest comforts grow?

IV

Sin has been the cause of all!
’Twas not thus before the fall:
What but pain and thorn and sting
From the root of sin can spring?

V

Now with every good we find
Vanity and grief entwined;
What we feel or what we fear
All our joys embitter here.

VI

Yet, through the Redeemer’s love,
These afflictions blessings prove;
He the wounding stings and thorns
Into healing med’cines turns.

VII

From the earth our hearts they wean,
Teach us on his arm to lean;
Urge us to a throne of grace;
Make us seek a resting-place.

VIII

In the mansions of our King
Sweets abound without a sting;
Thornless there the roses blow,
And the joys unmingled flow,