My soul has known the altar,
My feet the laver pure;
The transfer to the scapegoat,
Returns on me no more.
That I with joy may enter,
Within the golden shrine,
To know His own acceptance,
God reckons now as mine.
"Thus shall he come"; one only way
Thy holy word has planned;
The Victim's death, the Victim's blood,
The claims of truth demand.
Within the curtained partings,
On golden floor I stand,
Accepted in acceptance
Of God-accepted (or exalted) Man.
A priceless gem of beauty,
In linen white I 'm dressed,
A stone of brilliant lustre,
Upon the High Priest's breast.
I enter, and I die not,
For I have died before;
The altar and the ashes
Remember sin no more.
The claims of golden cherubim,
The holy claims of God,
Before and on the golden ark
Are met by sprinkled blood.
The cloud of incense rising
Tells me of His delight
In Him in whom He sees me
Unspotted in the light.
And thus within the holiest,
The holiest of all,
I learn (while owning all of grace),
I learn my heavenly call.
O, blessed holy nearness!
In Christ's own beauty graced,
Not what I was, but what I am,
All former state effaced.
One of the many children,
Foreknown in ages past,
Love brings to find its own delight,
Long as the ages last.
One of the many brethren,
The pearl in silver rim,
Assembly of the first-born,
The goodly pearl to Him.
O, blessed happy nearness!
My soul is filled with praise,
That on His face unveiled
I now with joy may gaze.
Here thou dost find thy pleasure,
Here thou dost find thy rest,
Surrounded now by children,
Through Christ so richly blessed. I. C. S.