| Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903. | | | | The Heart’s Chambers | | Anonymous |
| | | IF 1 I could shut the gate against my thoughts | |
| And keep out sorrow from this room within, | |
| Or memory could cancel all the notes | |
| Of my misdeeds, and I unthink my sin: | |
| How free, how clear, how clean my soul should lie, | 5 |
| Discharged of such a loathsome company! | |
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| Or were there other rooms without my heart | |
| That did not to my conscience join so near, | |
| Where I might lodge the thoughts of sin apart | |
| That I might not their clam’rous crying hear; | 10 |
| What peace, what joy, what ease should I possess, | |
| Freed from their horrors that my soul oppress! | |
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| But, O my Saviour, who my refuge art, | |
| Let Thy dear mercies stand ’twixt them and me, | |
| And be the wall to separate my heart, | 15 |
| So that I may at length repose me free; | |
| That peace, and joy, and rest may be within, | |
| And I remain divided from my sin. | |
| | | Note 1. From John Danyel’s “Songs for the Lute, Viol, and Voice.” [back] | | |
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