Heinrich Suso Is. xli.17 O Lord, the most fair, the most tender, My heart is adrift and alone; My heart is aweary and thirsty -- Athirst for a joy unknown. From a child I have followed it -- chased it, By wilderness, wold, and hill -- I never have reached it or seen it, yet must I follow it still. In those olden years did I seek it In the sweet fair things around, But the more I sought and I thirsted, The less, O my Lord, I found. When nearest it seemed to my grasping, It fled like a wandering thought; I never have known what it is, Lord -- Too well know I what it is not. "It is I, it is I, the Eternal, Who chose thee Mine own to be -- Who chose thee before the ages -- Who chose thee eternally. I stood in the way before thee, In the ways thou wouldest have gone; For this is the mark of My chosen, That they shall be Mine alone." |