The Anvil and the Hammer

Last eve I paused beside a blacksmith's door

And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;

Then looking in, I saw upon the floor

Old hammers worn with beating years of time.

"How many anvils have you had," said I,

"To wear and batter all these hammers so?"

"Just one," said he; and then with a twinkling eye,

"The anvil wears the hammers out, you know."

And so, I thought, the anvil of God's Word

For ages skeptic blows have beaten upon;

Yet though the noise of falling blows was heard,

The anvil is unharmed, the hammers gone.

—John Clifford