A Divided Mind

"For where your treasure is, there  will  your heart be also.  The light of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body  shall  be full of light.  But  if thine eye be evil, thy whole body  shall be full of darkness."  Matt. vi. 21, 22, 23.

Oh, that I had not this divided heart,
A mind, self-sundered, and at war within;
Which gives, or seems to give, to heaven a part,
But gives, alas, a greater part to sin.
Sometimes I think the victory to gain,
And plant my standard on the heavenly height;
But suddenly imperious passions reign,
And put my faithfulness and hopes to flight.
My conscience prompts me to the better way,
The Holy Spirit makes it still more clear,
But foul temptation leads my steps astray,
And Heaven is lost, because the World is dear.
'Tis he in triumph and in peace shall run,
The Christian's trying race, whose heart, whose soul, is one.

— American Cottage Life (1850) XXVIL.