HAST THOU HEARD HIM

Hast thou heard Him, seen Him, known Him?

Is not thine a captured heart?

Chief among ten thousand own Him,

joyful choose the better part.




Idols once they won thee, charmed thee,

lovely things of time and sense;

gilded thus does sin disarm thee,

honeyed lest thou turn thee thence.




What has stript the seeming beauty

from the idols of the earth?

Not a sense of right or duty,

but the sight of peerless worth.




Not the crushing of those idols,

with its bitter void and smart;

but the beaming of His beauty

the unveiling of His heart.




Who extinguishes their taper

till they hail the rising sun?

Who discards the garb of winter

till the summer has begun?




„This that look that melted Peter,

„This that face that Stephen saw,

„This that heart that wept with Mary,

can alone from idols draw:




Draw and win and fill completely,

till the cup o‟erflow the brim;

what have we to do with idols

who have companied with Him?