| W. Garrett Horder, comp. The Poets’ Bible: New Testament. 1895. | | | | Christ departing to pray | | Joseph Anstice (1808–1836) |
| | ‘And when He had sent them away, He departed into a mountain to pray.’—M ARK VI. 46. |
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‘COME to a desert place apart, | |
| And rest a little while;’ | |
| So spake the Christ, when limbs and heart | |
| Wax’d faint and sick through toil. | |
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| High communings with God He sought, | 5 |
| But, where he sought them, found | |
| The restless crowd together brought, | |
| And labour’s weary round. | |
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| Then, not a thought to self was given, | |
| Nor breath’d a word of blame; | 10 |
| He fed their souls with bread from Heaven, | |
| Then stay’d their sinking frame. | |
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| Turn’d He, when that long task was done, | |
| To sleep fatigue away? | |
| When on the desert sank the sun, | 15 |
| The Saviour wak’d to pray. | |
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| O perfect pattern from above, | |
| So strengthen us, that ne’er | |
| Prayer keep us back from works of love, | |
| Nor works of love from prayer. | 20 | | |
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