dots-menu
×

Home  »  The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century  »  William Josiah Irons (1812–1883)

Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

By Psalms and Hymns for the Church (1883). IX. “Pause now, and think, O Christian soul!”

William Josiah Irons (1812–1883)

PAUSE now, and think, O Christian soul!

Is Christ a shadowy name?

Say, wilt thou give to Him that whole

Being, for which He came?

Ask of thyself: “Whose Son is He?”

Is He of earth or heaven?

And art thou a co-heir to be

Of hopes that He has given?

Pause now, and think, O Christian soul

What is the Christ to thee?

A dim idea, to console

In some extremity?

A Name to win thee man’s respect,

The praise of flesh and blood?

If so, thou art not His elect,

And not the child of God.

For God on high claims all our love,

“Him only shalt thou serve,”

His mansions wait for thee above,

If here thou wilt not swerve.

On earth He sent His Son to show

The one true heavenward way,

And thou must follow Him to know

God’s everlasting day.

Dwell thou in God, and God in thee,

So mayest thou know the Son:

The I in them, and Thou in Me,

“That they in Us be one.”

His penitents begin that joy,

His saints that bliss fulfil;

And angels there find sweet employ,

Obedient to His Will.

O pause, then, doubtful Christian soul!

Think what a heaven is thine,

If thou wilt break from earth’s control,

And own thy Christ divine.

Nor hesitate to make thy choice,

Nor “tempt thy God,” Who still

Waits, with the angels to rejoice

Over man’s conquered will.