The Christian Book of Mystical Verse: A Collection of Poems, Hymns, and Prayers for Devotional Reading

by A.W. Tozer

I refer to the evangelical mystic who has been brought by the gospel into intimate fellowship with the Godhead.

He differs from the ordinary orthodox Christian only because he experiences his faith down in the depths of his sentient being while the other does not. He exists in a world of spiritual reality. He is quietly, deeply, and sometimes almost ecstatically aware of the Presence of God in his own nature and in the world around him. His religious experience is something elemental, as old as time and the creation. It is immediate acquaintance with God by union with the Eternal Son. It is to know that which passes knowledge.

The hymns and poems found here are mystical in that they are God-oriented; they begin with God, embrace the worshipping soul and return to God again.

The only healthy emotions are those aroused by great ideas, and even these must be restrained and purified by the Spirit of God or they will spend themselves in weak and sterile rhymes.

Lord, what shall earth and ashes do? We would adore our Maker too; From sin and dust to Thee we cry, The Great, the Holy, and the High.

All, save the clouds of sin, are Thine.

Grant us Thy truth to make us free, And kindling hearts that burn for Thee, Till all Thy living altars claim One holy light, one heavenly flame.