Your heart has a hidden idol,
God knows it - God and you,
You have made it a shrine in secret,
Where, in worship, you do bow.
From yon ruins, the clasping ivy,
'Twere easier to untwine,
Than to tear that hidden idol
That clings to that heart of yours. 

You name the Name of Jesus,
You seek His love to tell;
You call Him "Lord" and "Master",
And in that you say very well;
But, when you have entered your closet,
And have shut the door to pray,
Then, the Lord "who sees in secret"
Seems far, so far away!

For that which is nearer, dearer,
Than the Master to your heart,
Comes in between for ever
And steals your soul apart.
You name the Name of Jesus,
But you are not all His own;
You call Him "Lord" and "Master", 
But He is not on the throne.

Ah, "lay in the dust your treasure"
Whereon you have set your trust;
Your hidden "treasures of darkness",
Ah, lay them in the dust!
Lest your God should do it for you,
In mercy, before your eyes;
For God must shatter our idols
Wherever He sees them arise.

And if God shall do it for you,
With His mighty hand divine - 
If He shatter to earth your treasure,
As once He shattered mine,
Then, above the pain and the anguish,
Your sorrow of heart will be,
That you didn't give Him freely
All, ALL, that He asked of you.

I set up many an idol
In the days and years gone by;
And often I think the Master
Must have turned away with a sigh - 
Just as He turned from one of old,
Whom, looking upon, He loved - 
For my heart was exceedingly sorrowful,
But, its idols unremoved!

I wept when He shattered my idols,
In those bygone days and years;
I shadowed the moon and midnight
With my wild and childish tears;
But the Master hushed my weeping
With a touch of His hand, and said,
"Dear heart, I have taken them from you
To give you Myself instead".

I buried my shattered idols - 
I buried them out of my sight;
Then I lifted my face in the darkness,
And lo, He had made it light.
And there chimed in my heart the joy bells
Never again to cease - 
"Forasmuch as my King had entered
To His house again in peace".

I have buried my shattered idols;
But, ah! If I could go back,
And retrace the wayward footsteps
And could tread again the track,
Where the graves of those hidden idols
Lie all about the way;
He knows I would yield them freely - 
As you may do today!

For the hearts whose dearest "treasures"
Are laid at His feet in the dust,
Who venture upon Him wholly,
Are the hearts that God can trust.
And HIMSELF shall be their treasure,
Whose ALL at His feet is cast;
But the heart that is "joined to idols"
"He letteth alone" at last!

Author Unknown