The Cross unperceived (The disciple)

(The Saviour of the World, Vol IV, Book III, Poem XLIX)

But, Lord, my life is full of easy days,
The sun shines on me and my hours are fair;
If I be but a little sick, kind ways
Of household friends, solicitous, in care
Of me are spent: I never have a sadness
But Thou, my Lord, Thyself mak’st haste to cheer:
Yet th’ shadow of the cross falls on my gladness—
Disturbs my soul with many a wistful fear:

For Thou hast bidd’n me, every morn I wake,
Go forth beneath my cross; that burden bear
Which my Lord carried also; but how take
A cross and bear it when none doth appear?
“My child, thy cross is ever in thy way—
That thing thou should’st—and would’st not—do each day.”