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| “THERE are twelve hours in the day. If any man work in the daytime | |
| Such an one stumbleth not, for he seeth the daylight around him: | |
| If a man walk in the night, he stumbleth on in his blindness, | |
| There is no light in him, and this is the cause that he stumbleth. | |
| Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I must go to awake him.” | 5 |
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| “Lord, if he sleep it is well: for hard is the path of the wayworn; | |
| Stones and thorns lie around it, and wearily children of Adam | |
| Turn from the labours of life with its care, with its toil, with its sorrow, | |
| When the bright Angel of God takes post for the night by their pillow.” | |
| “Lazarus sleepeth in death, and we must go and behold him. | 10 |
| I for your sakes am glad that I was not there when he slumbered, | |
Now will I stablish your faith.”
’Twas thus in mystical warning | |
| Spake the Christ with his own as they gazed on the stream of the Jordan. | |
| They understood him not as he stood on the verge of his Passion, | |
| Waiting till death should weave the crown of thorns for his garland, | 15 |
| Crown which shall bud with the blossoms of life in the valley of Hades, | |
| E’en in the realms of Death, when Death himself is defeated. | |
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| They understood him not. Full well the soul of the Saviour | |
| Saw before him the shades of Gethsemane; saw the full chalice | |
| Which he must drink alone, ere they could know that in Jesus | 20 |
| Death is the gate of life, the passage to joys immortal. | |
| “Lazarus sleepeth. I go to awake him.” Child of the Virgin, | |
| Speak to us thus? Ah, speak to us thus, when we too shall slumber | |
| After the fever of life in the grave of peaceful awaiting. | |
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| “I am the Resurrection, and I am the Life for believers; | 25 |
| Whoso believeth in me, although he were dead, yet he liveth. | |
| Death hath no more dominion o’er him that liveth in Jesus.” | |
| Thus as the years roll on, the voice of the priest in the churchyard | |
| Sweetly greets the departed who come to rest in its bosom, | |
| Bosom pregnant with life—Seed land for the Lord of the harvest, | 30 |
| When he shall send his Angels to bear the sheaves to his garner. | |
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| “I am the Resurrection, and I am the Life for believers,” | |
| Spake the sweet voice of the Christ, as he stood by the grave of the loved one. | |
| He slept calm and still, and his soul was gone to the mansion | |
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| Where the departed await the trumpet call to the Judgment. | 35 |
| Silent and undisturbed he roamed through the ivory moonlight, | |
| Bathing in light the dim meadows of Asphodel; far in the distance | |
| Saw he the shadowy forms of the patriarch fathers of Hades, | |
| Wearily waiting the summons of him who cometh in triumph, | |
| Breaking the brazen gates and their bars of iron asunder. | 40 |
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| Hark! ’tis the voice of the Master! He calleth thee! Soul of the sleeper, | |
| Thee alone doth he call; Come forth! Come forth! Come forth! he commands thee; | |
“Lazarus, come thou forth!”
He feels the grave-clothes around him, | |
| Swathing yet once more the form of his earthly corruption, | |
| As his obedient spirit re-enters the clay of the body. | 45 |
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| “Lazarus, come thou forth! thou must sup with me ere my Passion: | |
| Life and Death must sit down together at Bethany. Think not | |
| Thy life’s work complete, nor that death again can infold thee | |
| Ere thou hast stood in the darkness beneath the cross of thy Saviour, | |
| Guiding the souls of the recognized dead when the grave shall return them | 50 |
| Here to receive the blessing which quick and dead must inherit, | |
| Under the outspread arms, the bleeding hands of Atonement.” | |
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