Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

By The Christian Year (1827). V. “There is a book, who runs may read”

John Keble (1792–1866)

THERE is a book, who runs may read,

Which heavenly truth imparts,

And all the lore its scholars need,

Pure eyes and Christian hearts.

The works of God above, below,

Within us and around,

Are pages in that book, to show

How God Himself is found.

The glorious sky embracing all

Is like the Maker’s love,

Wherewith encompassed, great and small

In peace and order move.

The Moon above, the Church below,

A wondrous race they run,

But all their radiance, all their glow,

Each borrows of its Sun.

The Saviour lends the light and heat

That crowns His holy hill;

The saints, like stars, around His seat

Perform their courses still.

The saints above are stars in heaven—

What are the saints on earth?

Like trees they stand whom God has given,

Our Eden’s happy birth.

Faith is their fixed unswerving root,

Hope their unfading flower,

Fair deeds of charity their fruit,

The glory of their bower.

The dew of heaven is like Thy grace,

It steals in silence down;

But where it lights, the favoured place

By richest fruits is known.

One Name above all glorious names

With its ten thousand tongues

The everlasting sea proclaims,

Echoing angelic songs.

The raging Fire, the roaring Wind,

Thy boundless power display;

But in the gentle breeze we find

Thy Spirit’s viewless way.

Two worlds are ours: ’tis only Sin

Forbids us to descry

The mystic heaven and earth within,

Plain as the sea and sky.

Thou, who hast given me eyes to see

And love this sight so fair,

Give me a heart to find out Thee,

And read Thee everywhere.