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GIVE ME THY HEART.

  With echoing steps the worshippers
    Departed one by one;
  The organ’s pealing voice was stilled,
    The vesper hymn was done;
  The shadow fell from roof and arch,
    Dim was the incensed air,
  One lamp alone, with trembling ray,
    Told of the Presence there!

  In the dark church she knelt alone;
    Her tears were falling fast;
  “Help, Lord,” she cried, “the shades of death
    Upon my soul are cast! 
  Have I not shunned the path of sin,
    And chose the better part? “—­
  What voice came through the sacred air?—­
  "My child, give me thy heart!"

  “Have not I laid before thy shrine
    My wealth, O Lord?” she cried;
  “Have I kept aught of gems or gold,
    To minister to pride? 
  Have I not bade youth’s joys retire,
    And vain delights depart?”—­
  But sad and tender was the voice,—­
    "My child, give me thy heart!"

  “Have I not, Lord, gone day by day
    Where thy poor children dwell;
  And carried help, and gold, and food? 
    O Lord, thou know’st it well! 
  From many a house, from many a soul,
    My hand bids care depart":—­
  More sad, more tender was the voice,—­
    "My child, give me thy heart!"

  “Have I not worn my strength away
    With fast and penance sore? 
  Have I not watched and wept?” she cried;
    “Did thy dear saints do more? 
  Have I not gained thy grace, O Lord,
    And won in heaven my part?”—­
  It echoed louder in her soul,—­
    “My child, give me thy heart!

  “For I have loved thee with a love
    No mortal heart can show;
  A love so deep my saints in heaven
    Its depths can never know: 
  When pierced and wounded on the cross,
    Man’s sin and doom were mine,
  I loved thee with undying love,
    Immortal and divine!

  “I loved thee ere the skies were spread;
    My soul bears all thy pains;
  To gain thy love my sacred heart
    In earthly shrines remains: 
  Vain are thy offerings, vain thy sighs,
    Without one gift divine;
  Give it, my child, thy heart to me,
    And it shall rest in mine!”

  In awe she listened, as the shade
    Passed from her soul away;
  In low and trembling voice she cried,—­
    “Lord, help me to obey! 
  Break thou the chains of earth, O Lord,
    That bind and hold my heart;
  Let it be thine and thine alone,
    Let none with thee have part.

  “Send down, O Lord, thy sacred fire! 
    Consume and cleanse the sin
  That lingers still within its depths: 
    Let heavenly love begin. 
  That sacred flame thy saints have known,
    Kindle, O Lord, in me,
  Thou above all the rest forever,
    And all the rest in thee.”