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::R2794 : page 120::

“SO AS BY FIRE”

“I sometimes feel so passionate a yearning
For spiritual perfection here below,
This vigorous frame with healthful fervor burning,
Seems my determined foe.

“So actively it makes a stern resistance,
So cruelly it sometimes wages war
Against the higher spiritual existence,
Which I am striving for.

“It interrupts my soul’s intense devotions;
Some hope it strangles at its very birth
With a swift rush of violent emotions
Which link me to the earth.

“It is as if two mortal foes contended
Within my bosom in a deadly strife;
One for the loftier aims Jesus intended,
One for the “Mammon” life.

“And yet I know this very war within me,
Which brings out all my will-power and control;
This very conflict yet through Christ shall win me
The loved and longed-for goal.

“And when in the immortal ranks enlisted,
Sometimes I wonder if we shall not find
That not for deeds alone, but also what’s resisted,
Our places were assigned.” —Selected.

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— April 1, 1901 —