Matthew 7: Have I not sought a length of years

Have I not sought a length of years
And blindly follow'd on.
With joy and grief, with hopes and fears
Pursued the God unknown,
5. Matthew vii. 8.
Through every means unwearied roved,
And search'd the desert round?
Yet still by me He is not loved,
By me He is not found.
How can I lose, if God is true,
My unavailing pain?
What is it keeps Him from my view,
And makes me seek in vain?
If every earnest seeker finds
The smiling Deity,
It must be sin my spirit blinds,
And hides my God from me.
The mountain dark that stands between
I cannot heave away,
Remove the separating sin
Or struggle into day;
I cannot find the hindrance out
With all my searching care,
But wander on in endless doubt
And sink in sad despair.
Thou great Incomprehensible,
To whom my heart is known.
Whose absence from my soul I feel,
And painfully bemoan;
The' obstructing thing, the secret bar
Discover by Thy light.
And now at last my soul prepare
To seek Thy face aright.
Thou bidd'st me seek, and Thy command
Confers the power to' obey:
And all in Thee may understand
The true and living Way:
Thy Father, Lord, to me reveal,
The faith Divine impart.
And then I see the' Invisible,
I find Him — in my heart.