The Refuge

There is a rest a refuge and a tower

Where faith may dwell in sorrow’s darkest hour

But ere she reaches that serene abode

The soul must travel a tremendous road

The gate is narrow—self must be denied

Passion subdued and Pride be crucified

Then through humiliations vale she goes

Trembling and watchful mid a host of foes

But faith’s bright lamp returns the dangerous way

And gilds the footsteps with perpetual day

Fierce conflicts force the toiling traveller there

And the door opens to prevailing prayer

No more in self she dares the unequal fight

But trusts the contest to celestial might

Strong in that power and fixed in that repose

From grace to grace from strength to strength she goes

Till from corruptions hated dross refin[e]d

The Spirit leaves the incumbering clay behind

Springs to its native clime its loved abode

And finds a plenitude of bliss with God.

E. Coltman

Text: This late poem by Coltman can be found in the Susanna Watts Scrapbook, Record Office for Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland, acc. no. DE8170. The poem is signed and dated December 22, 1828, in Coltman’s hand. The poem was originally composed for Ellen Ann Noble, the daughter of Dr. Joseph William Noble (1797-1861), a physician who also served for a time as mayor of Leicester, is indicative of Coltman’s fervent evangelical Baptist faith at this late stage of her life. The poem was published for the first time in Timothy Whelan, Other British Voices: Women, Poetry, and Religion, 1766-1840 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), p. 234.