Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.
By A Heretic and Other Poems (1891). II. The Vision of GodWalter Chalmers Smith (18241908)
O
How they speak to me of God,
Now the veil in twain is riven
That concealed where He abode!
Yet its clouds were once around Him,
And I sought Him in despair,
And never there I found Him,
Till I brought Him with me there.
No mechanical device
Pierced the darkness that concealed Him
With a vision more precise:
Only lowliness can merit
That His secret He should tell
Only spirit seeth spirit,
And the heart that loveth well.
Shall the cloud and mist depart;
Vain to seek Him all around thee,
Till He dwell within thy heart.
Not without thee, but within thee
Must the oracle be heard,
As He seeketh still to win thee,
And to guide thee by His word.
Then I found Him everywhere,
In the bud and in the blossom,
In the earth and in the air;
And He spake to me with clearness
From the silent stars that say,
As ye find Him in His nearness,
Ye shall find Him far away.