Bethel

What place is this that gives me peace Amidst the haunting of the world's disease Where on a stony pillow I find release Guilty shadows flee, and I am at ease What place is this that between a vision And a dream, show me heaven still is real And angels in their bright succession Walk up and down the sacred ladder in zeal O let me with my pillow make an altar here Mark this indestructible rock of my faith This must be heaven's gate, let me bare My selfish desires, that you may consecrate This worthless vessel, once of precious gem Was wrought, for I have fled my kindred Hound, but cannot flee this surge of mayhem That holds me captive with its silent dread O Bethel, now I return again, remember me The trickster from the crossroad turned. Here Once more my better name that favors mercy To claim from my children's shame. How dear To me this Rock, before whom once ago I kneel When in ignorance that long night he gave rest And moved my heart like a ship to turn its keel To the harbor of his love, to the shelter of his breast. And yet, despite my experience, how do I tell What is the gate of God in the sinner's earth This little spot that shuts out our guilty hell And like a womb provide us with a second birth What place is this, self replenishing, multiplies The blessings channeled through absent doors My cup runneth over here, and none denies In this place the heart a laddered angel soars