A Legend of Service (Legends) by Henry Van Dyke

It pleased the Lord of Angels (praise His name! ) / To hear, one day, report from those who came / With pitying sorrow, or exultant joy, / To tell of earthly tasks in His employ: / For some were sorry when they saw how slow / The stream of heavenly love on earth must flow; / And some were glad because their eyes had seen, / Along its banks, fresh flowers and living green. / So, at a certain hour, before the throne / The youngest angel, Asmiel, stood alone; / Nor glad, nor sad, but full of earnest thought, / And thus his tidings to the Master brought: / "Lord, in the city Lupon I have found / "Three servants of thy holy name, renowned / "Above their fellows. One is very wise, / "With thoughts that ever range above the skies; / "And one is gifted with the golden speech / "That makes men glad to hear when he will teach; / "And one, with no rare gift or grace endued, / "Has won the people's love by doing good. / "With three such saints Lupon is trebly blest; / "But, Lord, I fain would know, which loves Thee best?"

Then spake the Lord of Angels, to whose look / The hearts of all are like an open book: / "In every soul the secret thought I read, / "And well I know who loves me best indeed. / "But every life has pages vacant still, / "Whereon a man may write the thing he will; / "Therefore I read in silence, day by day, / "And wait for hearts untaught to learn my way. / "But thou shalt go to Lupon, to the three / "Who serve me there, and take this word from me: / "Tell each of them his Master bids him go / "Alone to Spiran's huts, across the snow; / "There he shall find a certain task for me: / "But what, I do not tell to them nor thee. / "Give thou the message, make my word the test, / "And crown for me the one who answers best. " / Silent the angel stood, with folded hands, / To take the imprint of his Lord's commands; / Then drew one breath, obedient and elate, / And passed, the self-same hour, through Lupon's gate.