The Winding Stairs, No II

The Winding Stairs, No II. [No. 46]

For us there yet is work, e’en more divine
Than those who labour’d on Moriah’s Mount,
Him as a Labourer for God I count
Who seeks with all his dealings to combine
Good to his Fellow-men. We look in vain— 5
Poor foolish mortals!—for some enterprise
To be accomplish’d whilst ten thousand eyes
Gaze on approvingly; and we disdain
To do our utmost Duties close at Home.
This is vain Pride, and not Freemasonry: 10
For it requires that we should always be
Ready, at any moment, forth to come
To succour the Distress’d. Our Mystic Tie
Needeth no Witness but the Great All-Seeing Eye.

by George Markham Tweddell  1st published 1887