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The Altar

or, Meditations in Verse On The Great Christian Sacrifice By The Author of "The Cathedral," [i.e. Isaac Williams]

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5.

“And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.”

Within the lowest deep a lower deep
Receives the penitent in true self-hate,
Whose heart the thoughts of Thee shall penetrate;
Who more and more would fain his bosom steep
With rays of light from heaven, and wake to weep
The sins that fold themselves in our dark state,
Lest that e'en now our foes be at the gate,
And at our going hence arouse from sleep,
And summon us to bondage. While our eyes
Are weigh'd down by a seeming false repose
By spirits of darkness, He our danger knows.
But from this fathomless abyss of woes
Who shall raise up the Maker of the skies,
Fall'n to the ground in speechless agonies?
 

Psalm cxxvii. 6.