Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity.
“Walk in the Spirit.”
—Epistle for the Day.
By heavenly likeness hearts discern
The secrets most divine;
Since, as we live, so much we learn
Of Thee, O God! and Thine.
Those inward eyes of purity
By which the mind beholds
Ideal truths sin cannot see,
When God Himself unfolds,—
Unless we have them, vain is all
The science taught within;
Our creed, the World may holy call,
But, such proud wealth is sin.
And here, behold that peerless Law
Proving the Gospel's worth,
Beyond what sage or poet saw
When most he soar'd from earth;—
That Law is,—purity intense,
A chastity divine,
A sacred glow of innocence,
That keeps the heart a shrine,—
A shrine of holiness and power
Whence praise and prayer arise,
To seek what charms the dreadest hour
Demanding sacrifice.
Then, weigh thy heart! disciple, keep
That central pulse of life,
Which even through mysterious sleep
Can throb with sin, and strife.
Unfathom'd, ever-active spring
Of deathless thought, and will!
To which time, sense, and motion bring
Perpetual good, or ill,
By Thee we live, and love, and hate,
The inward Man art thou,
Thy nature dooms our final state,—
And that, is forming, now!
Oh! watch we then, with jealous eyes
That world, where God alone
Searches the secret thoughts which rise
Like shades before His Throne.
