| Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907. | | | | II. “The strongest light casts deepest shades” | | By Elizabeth Charles (1827–1896) |
| | | THE STRONGEST light casts deepest shades, | |
| The dearest love makes dreariest loss; | |
| And she His birth so blest had made | |
| Stood by Him dying on the cross. | |
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| Yet since not grief but joy shall last, | 5 |
| The day and not the night abide, | |
| And all time’s shadows earthward cast | |
| Are lights upon the “other side;” | |
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| Through what long bliss that shall not fail | |
| That darkest hour shall brighten on! | 10 |
| Better than any angel’s “Hail!” | |
| The memory of “Behold thy Son!” | |
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| Blest in thy lowly heart to store | |
| The homage paid at Bethlehem; | |
| But far more blessed evermore | 15 |
| Thus to have shared the taunts and shame— | |
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| Thus with thy pierc’d heart to have stood | |
| ’Mid mocking crowds, and owned Him thine, | |
| True through a world’s ingratitude, | |
| And owned in death by lips Divine. | 20 | | | |
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