My Soul, there is a country
     Afar beyond the stars,
Where stands a winged sentry
     All skillful in the wars:
There above noise and danger
     Sweet Peace sits crown'd with smiles
And One born in a manger
     Commands the beauteous files.
He is thy gracious friend
     And (O my soul, awake!)
Did in pure love descend
     To die here for thy sake.
If thou canst get but thither
     There grows the flow'r of Peace,
The Rose that cannot wither,
     Thy fortress and thy ease.
Leave then thy foolish ranges
     For none can thee secure,
But One who never changes,
     Thy God, thy life, thy cure.

Henry Vaughan lived from 1621 until 1695.  He was a metaphysical poet who had six daughters and two sons.  During his lifetime he was especially famous for a collection of works, Silex Scintillans, which means "Fiery Flint" or "flashing flint".  A metaphor, which "refers to the stony hardness of his heart, from which divine steel strikes fire".¹

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1.  The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Sixth Edition, Vol 1. New York, W. W. Norton & Co., 1993.