Ralph Erskine's Gospel Sonnets on 1 Peter 1:8,
My life's a pleasure and a pain:
A real loss, a real gain;
A glorious paradise of joys,
A grievous prison of annoys.
I daily joy, and daily mourn,
Yet daily wait the tide's return;
Then sorrow deep my spirit cheers,
I'm joyful in a flood of tears.
...
I'm poor, yet stock'd with untold rent;
Most weak, and yet omnipotent.
On earth there's none so great and high,
Nor yet so low and mean as I;
None or so foolish, or so wise;
So often fall, so often rise.
I, seeing him I never saw,
Serve without fear, and yet with awe.
...
In fears I spend my vital breath,
In doubts I waste my passing years;
Yet still the life I live is faith,
The opposite of doubts and fears.
'Tween clearing faith and clouding sense,
I walk in darkness and in light.
I'm certain oft, when in suspense,
While sure by faith and not by sight.
