The life of those who dwell in the secret place of the Most High may be called a Hidden Life, because the animating principle, the vital or operative element, is not so much in itself as in another. It is a life grafted into another life. It is the life of the soul, incorporated into the life of Christ; and in such a way, that, while it has a distinct vitality, it has so very much in the sense, in which the branch of a tree may be said to have a distinct vitality from the root.

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Oh, What a Fearful Thing It Is

Oh,  what a fearful thing it is,
That, from the better way,
Attracted by illusive bliss,
We love to go astray.

At first we slightly turn aside,
Nor think to travel long,
But  more and more we wander wide,
And, more and more go wrong.

Oh, poor and erring wanderer, stay!
Nor thus forsake thy God;
With hasty step regain the way
Thine earlier footsteps trod.

Oh, happy he, who loves to weep
With penitential tears,
And thus has strength divine to keep
His path in coming years.

American Cottage Life (1850).

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