The Altar

  A broken ALTAR, Lord, thy servant rears,
 Made of a heart and cemented with tears:
  Whose parts are as thy hand did frame;
No workman's tool hath touch'd the same.
                   A HEART alone
                   Is such a stone,
                  As nothing but
                  Thy pow'r 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.
   Oh, let thy blessed SACRIFICE be mine,
     And sanctify this ALTAR to be thine.
More Poems by George Herbert