THE SON of God in doing good | |
| Was fain to look to Heaven and sigh: | |
| And shall the heirs of sinful blood | |
| Seek joy unmix’d in charity? | |
| God will not let Love’s work impart | 5 |
| Full solace, lest it steal the heart: | |
| Be thou content in tears to sow, | |
| Blessing, like Jesus, in thy woe. | |
| |
| He looked to Heaven, and sadly sigh’d— | |
| What saw my gracious Saviour there, | 10 |
| With fear and anguish to divide | |
| The joy of Heaven-accepted prayer? | |
| So o’er the bed where Lazarus slept | |
| He to His Father groan’d and wept: | |
| What saw He mournful in that grave, | 15 |
| Knowing Himself so strong to save? | |
| |
| Overwhelming thoughts of pain and grief | |
| Over His sinking spirit sweep:— | |
| “What boots it gathering one lost leaf | |
| “Out of yon sere and wither’d heap, | 20 |
| “Where souls and bodies, hopes and joys, | |
| “All that earth owns or sin destroys, | |
| “Under the spurning hoof are cast, | |
| “Or tossing in th’ autumnal blast?” | |
| |
| The deaf may hear the Saviour’s voice, | 25 |
| The fetter’d tongue its chain may break; | |
| But the deaf heart, the dumb by choice, | |
| The laggard soul, that will not wake, | |
| The guilt that scorns to be forgiven;— | |
| These baffle e’en the spells of Heaven: | 30 |
| In thought of these, His brows benign | |
| Not even in healing cloudless shine. | |
| |
| No eye but His might ever bear | |
| To gaze all down that drear abyss, | |
| Because none ever saw so clear | 35 |
| The shore beyond of endless bliss: | |
| The giddy waves so restless hurl’d, | |
| The vex’d pulse of this feverish world, | |
| He views and counts with steady sight, | |
| Used to behold the Infinite. | 40 |
| |
| But that in such communion high | |
| He hath a fount of strength within, | |
| Sure His meek heart would break and die, | |
| O’erburthen’d by His brethren’s sin; | |
| Weak eyes on darkness dare not gaze, | 45 |
| It dazzles like the noon-day blaze; | |
| But He who sees God’s face may brook | |
| On the true face of Sin to look. | |
| |
| What then shall wretched sinners do, | |
| When in their last, their hopeless day, | 50 |
| Sin, as it is, shall meet their view, | |
| God turn His face for aye away? | |
| Lord, by Thy sad and earnest eye, | |
| When Thou didst look to Heaven and sigh; | |
| Thy voice, that with a word could chase | 55 |
| The dumb, deaf spirit from his place; | |
| |
| As Thou hast touch’d our ears, and taught | |
| Our tongues to speak Thy praises plain, | |
| Quell Thou each thankless, godless thought | |
| That would make fast our bonds again. | 60 |
| From worldly strife, from mirth unblest, | |
| Drowning Thy music in the breast, | |
| From foul reproach, from thrilling fears, | |
| Preserve, good Lord, Thy servants’ ears. | |
| |
| From idle words, that restless throng, | 65 |
| And haunt our hearts when we would pray, | |
| From pride’s false chime, and jarring wrong, | |
| Seal Thou my lips, and guard the way: | |
| For Thou hast sworn, that every ear, | |
| Willing or loth, Thy trump shall hear, | 70 |
| And every tongue unchained be | |
| To own no hope, no God, but Thee. | |
| |
