{
 "id": "george-macdonald/approaches",
 "title": "Approaches",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "George MacDonald",
 "poet_slug": "george-macdonald",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Poetical Works of George MacDonald, Volume II",
 "book_slug": "poetical-works-vol-2",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 38,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1893,
  "venue": "The Poetical Works of George MacDonald, Volume II (1893)",
  "note": "Taken from the 1893 collected Poetical Works, which is the printing this text is and not the poem's first appearance. MacDonald gathered and revised for it work published from 1855 onward, and it arranges the poems by its own editorial grouping rather than by the volumes they came from, so which earlier book or magazine printed this poem first has not been established here.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/poeticalworksge00macdgoog",
   "https://archive.org/metadata/poeticalworksge00macdgoog",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9984"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/george-macdonald_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1953",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8949",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9543",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9984",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10578",
   "https://archive.org/details/bookofstrifeinfo00macd",
   "https://archive.org/details/discipleandothe02macdgoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/hiddenlifeandoth00macduoft",
   "https://archive.org/details/discipleandothe02macdgoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/rampolli00macd",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102955776",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011821572"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 14,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 38,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "When thou turn’st away from ill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Christ is this side of thy hill.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When thou turnest toward good,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Christ is walking in thy wood.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When thy heart says, “Father, pardon!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then the Lord is in thy garden.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When stern Duty wakes to watch,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then his hand is on the latch.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But when Hope thy song doth rouse,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then the Lord is in the house.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When to love is all thy wit,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Christ doth at thy table sit.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When God’s will is thy heart’s pole,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then is Christ thy very soul.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}