Sin of the Choral Singer

Hark! the organ's solemn peal Ascends the lofty fane, To win the soul's repeal, From everlasting pain:

To waft the voice of praise To Him who reigns above, Which blends with burning lays Of Seraph's holy love.

Hark! the deep-toned, solemn peal! Again it strikes the air! My trembling accents steal To join the anthem there.

I strive to lift my mind To God's most holy throne; And, with my thought refined, To think on Heaven alone.

But earth-born love intrudes And brings me back to earth; To dreamy solitudes My spirit wanders forth:

To walk with one, a youth, With bright and sunny hair, Whose words are only truth, Whose love is heavenly fair.

God! forgive my grievous sin! God! forgive my erring love! Write not my sentence in Thine awful scroll above!

God! forgive thy creature's love, Who only loves too well! Let not that virtue prove My doleful doom to hell.

But make my passion less— Its burning purify; And make it meet to bless My spirit in the sky.