This powerful poem teaches that there can be splendor in ordinary, and that all things, even the most mundane, that are done to honor God are modes of worship.
George Herbert (1593-1633)
THE ELIXIR
TEACH me, my God and King,
In all things Thee to see,
And what I do in anything,
To do it as for Thee.Not rudely, as a beast,
To run into action ;
But still to make Thee prepossest,
And give it his perfection.A man that looks on glass,
On it may stay his eye,
Or, if he pleaseth, through it pass,
And then the heav’n espy.All may of Thee partake ;
Nothing can be so mean
Which with his* tincture (for Thy sake)
Will not grow bright and clean.A servant with this clause
Makes drudgery divine :
Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws,
Makes that and th’ action fine.This is the famous stone
That turneth all to gold ;
For that which God doth touch and own
Cannot for less be told.
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