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Home  »  The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century  »  William Hall (1838– )

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

By Via Crucis (1906). II. Self-Communion (Selected Stanzas)

William Hall (1838– )

COMMUNE with thine own heart!—no need

To wander the wide earth around;

If but in thine own breast thou read

Aright—thy God thou wilt have found;

Who habiteth Eternity

There condescends to dwell with thee.

(Section V)
Commune with thine own heart! for there

The Heaven-ascending ladder lies,

A pathway into purer air,

A window giving on the skies;

Through which thou mayest wing thy flight,

And mingle with the Infinite.

There-through thy thoughts may pass at large

When ill with thee it here doth fare,

Procuring thee a full discharge

From harassing and carking care:

From Earth’s enthralling fetters free

There thou may’st range at liberty.

Yea there thou may’st shut-to the door

Against all envy, strife, and hate;

Though outwardly they rave and roar,

Within they may not penetrate:

Safe-guarded in that still recess

Thou shalt defy the angry press.

(Section VI)
Commune with thine own heart!—for there

The better, nobler self resides,

That in the life divine doth share,

And ever in the Presence bides;

The self with Deity at one,

As with its beam the central sun.

There—from the world of sense aloof—

Such insight shall be granted thee

As shall afford thee ample proof

Of thine august paternity;

The Spirit witnessing with thine

That thou art sprung from seed divine.