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, January 9, 2016

Oh, Sacred Union with the Perfect Mind

Oh, sacred union with the perfect mind!
Transcendent bliss, which Thou alone canst give!
How blest are they, this pearl of price who find,
And, dead to earth, have learnt in Thee to live!

Thus, in thine arms of love, O God, I lie!
Lost, and forever lost, to all but Thee.
My happy soul, since it hath learnt to die,
Hath found new life in thine Infinity.

O, go, and learn this lesson of the cross!
And tread the way which saints and prophets trod;
Who, counting life, and self, and all things loss,
Have found in inward death the life of God.

quoted in A Treatise on Divine Union (1851) Part 7, Chapter 10.


EDITOR'S NOTE: This poem has sometimes been sung as a hymn: for the music, check out hymnal.net here: "Oh, sacred union with the Perfect Mind."

 

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