The Altar
The Altar of the Heart
The speaker offers a broken heart as an altar shaped by God, and asks for Christ's sacrifice to sanctify it.
A broken altar, Lord, your servant raises, made of a heart and cemented with tears: its parts are as your hand shaped them; no workman's tool has touched them.✦ A heart alone is such a stone that nothing but your power can cut it.✦ So every part of my hard heart meets in this frame to praise your name—so that if I happen to keep silent, these stones may not stop praising you.✦ O let your blessed Sacrifice be mine, and sanctify this altar to be yours.1
Read the original English
A broken Altar, Lord, thy servant reares, Made of a heart, and cemented with teares: Whose parts are as thy hand did frame; No workmans tool hath touch'd the same. A Heart alone Is such a stone, As nothing but Thy power doth cut. Wherefore each part Of my hard heart Meets in this frame, To praise thy name: That if I chance to hold my peace, These stones to praise thee may not cease. O let thy blessed Sacrifice be mine, And sanctifie this Altar to be thine.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Exod.20.25;Deut.27.5-Deut.27.6 — And if you build an altar of stones for me, you shall not build them of cut stone, for you have lifted your sword upon it, and you have profaned it. Deut.27.5 — And you shall build there an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones; you shall not wield iron upon them. Deut.27.6 — You shall build the altar of the LORD your God of whole stones, and you shall offer burnt offerings on it to the LORD your God.
- ↩Ezek.36.26 — And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
- ↩Luke.19.40 — And he answered and said to them, 'I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out.'
Notes
- 1 ↩Sacrifice capitalizes Christ's once-for-all offering (and its eucharistic memorial); kept as Sacrifice rather than flattened to a generic gift.
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