Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.
By Via Crucis (1906). II. Self-Communion (Selected Stanzas)William Hall (1838– )
C
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.