Tillman: A perfect heart be thine

A poem by Katherine Davis Chapman Tillman was published in the Christian Recorder for March 12, 1896. The poem references her husband, a preacher, who inspired the poem:

"Heart-Keeping"
Thoughts suggested by a sermon on "Heart-Cultivation,"
delivered by Rev. G. M. Tillman, at Davenport, Iowa.

Thy heart so prone to waywardness,
   Thy heart so fond of sin,
Oh keep thy heart with diligence;
   Let every thought be clean.

Let evil books whose impure thoughts
   Would soil thy heart's fair page
Be resolutely thrust aside,
   By youth as well as age.

Ask God for strength when morn's
   First rays, across thy pathway shine;
At eve when stars shine overhead,
   Thy heart to God incline.

Let every impulse of thy soul
   Upward to God incline;
So shall from morn, till setting sun,
   A perfect heart be thine.

For, from thy heart in living streams,
   Life's issues ever flow,
A stream of evil or of good.
   Of blessing or of woe.

For more on Tillman (there is very little), see the previous entry on her here.

*This poem is also collected in The Works of Katherine Davis Chapman Tillman (1991), edited by Claudia Tate.