| W. Garrett Horder, comp. The Poets’ Bible: New Testament. 1895. | | | | John Baptizing Christ | | From the Parisian Breviary |
| | Translated by Isaac Williams
WHY linger’st thou, great John? thy Lord commands; | |
| Yea, He who washes souls with living fires | |
| More pure than liquid lightnings, He requires | |
| And bears the cleansing river from thy hands. | |
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| How sunk thy soul, when there in Jordan’s bed | 5 |
| He bow’d His head, before thee all unmeet | |
| To take the sandals from His sacred feet, | |
| Before thee bow’d His more than holy head! | |
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| See from the heavens, descending like a dove, | |
| There hovers now a brightly-glowing cloud; | 10 |
| The unutterable voice is heard aloud, | |
| The awful Three in One, below, above. | |
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| But thou art bent to preach the avenging rod | |
| Of justice, and, the flag of peace unfurl’d, | |
| The victim come to cleanse the guilty world,— | 15 |
| To point out the unspotted Lamb of God. | |
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| Careless of thine own honour, thou to cease | |
| Didst hasten, like the star before the day, | |
| Willing thyself to vanish hence away,— | |
| ’Tis meet that thou depart, and He increase. | 20 |
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| But not alone shalt thou with thy life’s breath | |
| Bear witness,—one thing yet to thee remains, | |
| Boldly the truth to speak, and bear the chains, | |
| And go before thy Lord in murderous death. | |
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| In Thee our strains shall end, Thee ever sing, | 25 |
| The eternal Father, and the eternal Son, | |
| And the eternal Spirit, Three in One, | |
| Whom Heaven and earth adore, sole God and King. | | | | |
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