The Starry Skies

The starry skies, they rest, my soul,
Its chains of care unbind,
And with the dew of cooling: thoughts
Refresh my sultry mind.

And, like a bird amidst the boughs,
I rest, and sing, and rest,
Among those bright dissevered worlds,
As safe as in a nest.

And oft I think the starry sprays
Swing with me where I light,
While brighter branches lure me o'er
New gulfs of purple night.

Yes, something draws me upward there
As morning draws the lark;
Only my spell, whatever it is,
Works better in the dark.

It is as if a home was there,
To which my soul was turning,
A home not seen, but nightly proved
By a mysterious yearning.

It seems as if no actual space
Could hold it in its bond;
Thought climbs its highest, still it is
Always beyond, beyond.

Earth never feels like home, though fresh
And full its tide of mirth;
No glorious change we can conceive
Would make a home of earth.

But God alone can be a home;
And His sweet Vision lies
Somewhere in that soft gloom concealed,
Beyond the starry skies.

So, as if waiting for a voice,
Nightly I gaze and sigh,
While the stars look at me silently
Out of their silent sky.

How have I erred! God is my home,
And God Himself is here;
Why have I looked so far for Him
Who is nowhere but near?

Oh not in distant starry skies,
In vastness not abroad,
But everywhere in His whole Self
Abides the whole of God.

In golden presence not diffused,
Not in vague fields of bliss,
But whole in every present point
The Godhead simply is.

Down in earth's duskiest vales, where er
My pilgrimage may be,
Thou, Lord! wilt be a ready home
Always at hand for me.

I spake: but God was nowhere seen;
Was His love too tired to wait?
Ah no! my own unsimple love
Hath often made me late.

How often things already won
It urges me to win,
How often makes me look outside
For that which is within!

Our souls go too much out of self
Into ways dark and dim:
'Tis rather God who seeks for us,
Than we who seek for Him.

Yet surely through my tears I saw
God softly drawing near;
How came He without sight or sound
So soon to disappear?

God was not gone: but He so longed
His sweetness to impart,
He too was seeking for a home,
And found it in my heart.

Twice had I erred: a distant God
Was what I could not bear;
Sorrows and cares were at my side;
I longed to have Him there.

But God is never so far off
As even to be near;
He is within; our spirit is
The home He holds most dear.

To think of Him as by our side
Is almost as untrue,
As to remove His throne beyond
Those skies of starry blue.

So all the while I thought myself
Homeless, forlorn, and weary,
Missing my joy, I walked the earth,
Myself God's sanctuary.