The Temple

Herbert loved crafting language in new and powerful ways. It was for him a way of seeing and savoring and showing the wonders of Christ. The central theme of his poetry was the redeeming love of Christ, and he labored with all his literary might to see it clearly, feel it deeply, and show it strikingly. We don’t have a single sermon that he ever preached…. What we have is his poetry. And here the beauty of the subject is wedded to the beauty of his craft. John Piper, Introduction

Although George Herbert was a pastor of a small remote church in Elizabethan England, he came to fame because of a small collection of poems called The Temple. In this short but beautiful collection of poetry, Herbert devised 116 new poetic forms to capture his experiences of awe, sorrow, glory, turmoil, repentance, and heart-rending joy, all of it dedicated to God, not man. In this book, we have a picture of the full range of human experience and emotion, felt by a man being sanctified by God and describing it with all his poetic powers.

Sir, I pray deliver this little book to my dear brother … and tell him he shall find in it a picture of the many spiritual conflicts that have passed betwixt God and my soul, before I could subject mine to the will of Jesus my Master, in whose service I have now found perfect freedom; desire him to read it: and then, if he can think it may turn to the advantage of any dejected poor soul, let it be made public; if not, let him burn it; for I and it are less than the least of God’s mercies. George Herbert