Last evening I paused beside the
     blacksmith's door
And heard the anvil ring the vesper
     chime.
"How many anvils have you had"
     said I
     "To wear and batter all these hammers so?"
"Just one", said he; then said 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