The Gospel Miracles :: :: University of Virginia Library

“Cry aloud, shew my people their sins,
My flock their iniquities shew!”
Hark, a voice from the desert of Judah begins,
And its theme is of guilt and of woe.

“Repent ye,” it cries: the dread sounds
Thro' the rocks and the valleys are sent:
From the rocks and the valleys the warning rebounds,
And Jordan re-echoes, “Repent ye, repent!”

By the side of the time-honour'd wave
The Preacher has chosen his stand,
Prepar'd in the bath of repentance to lave
Whom humility brings to his hand.
There Jerusalem gathers around;
And Judea assembles to hear;
And the regions of Jordan, awak'd at the sound,
To the “Preacher of righteousness” hearken and fear.

In raiment of camel's hair clad,
Round his loins a coarse girdle of skin,
With language austere and with countenance sad
He proclaims the just judgment of sin.
“See, the axe is laid home to the root,

And the tree, which of penitence bears not the fruit,
Shall be hewn by the steel, and consum'd by the flame.”

Is there one in that numberless throng,
Whose conscience, whose heart, is not rent
By that warning portentous? who never did wrong,
And who needs not, who cannot, repent?
If there be such, why tarries he here?
Why in humble obscurity lies?
Let him hence from the soul-stricken crowd, or draw near,
And himself in the stream the Baptizer baptize.

Such there is in the midst of the crowd,
As yet to his fellows unknown.
But the Baptist, he knows, he proclaims it aloud;
He fears not self-humbled to own,

How ill may his grandeur and birth
With that Unknown's pretensions compare;
How unworthy were he ev'n to stoop to the earth,
His feet to unsandal, his sandals to bear.

“I baptize you with water,” he cries;
“To work your repentance I aim:
But He, who is greater than I, shall baptize
With the Spirit of God and with flame.
In his hand is his van, and his floor
He shall thoroughly purge in his ire;
And the grain in his garner collected shall store,
But burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

But why does the Baptist refrain
To yon stranger ablution to give?
Why ponder, and linger, as if he would fain
His own rite from another receive?
And why does he vanquish'd submit
Obedient at length to his will?
And what mean those words, “Let it be, for 'tis fit
The appointed solemnities thus to fulfil?”

Ask no more, but look onward, and view
From the bank where in converse they stood,
At Bethabara's passage together the two
Are gone down to the willow-edg'd flood.
The Baptist hath finish'd his rite:
The Baptiz'd rises fresh from the stream:
And forth as he passes and prays, to his sight
Unfolded the courts of the firmament gleam.

On his head from the mansions above
Slow lighting, as over her nest
With tremulous brilliancy hovers a dove,
See the Spirit of holiness rest:

And lo, as that splendour ye see,
From “the excellent glory” a voice,
“My Son, my beloved, behold this is He,
My only-begotten, in whom I rejoice!”

O well might the Baptist profess,
“He is nobler and greater than I;”
Himself might he well a mere menial confess,
Unworthy his shoes to untie:
And well might he bid him declare,
Tho' “more than a prophet” were he,
“Why com'st Thou my bath of repentance to share?
I have need, I have need, to be cleansed by Thee.”

Yea, with thoughts and affections more clear
Than, Jordan, thy crystalline wave,
More pure than the light that illumines the sphere,
In that water he needed not lave.
But he chooses for righteousness' sake
To bathe all unsullied therein,
That he to the world an example may make,
And hallow the font for the cleansing of sin.

For still, by his mystical rite,
His priests with the word and with pray'r
To the laver of faith and repentance invite
The children of sin to repair.
And there in the sanctified flood
He washes their nature defil'd,
Where the life-giving Spirit takes pleasure to brood,
And the Father salutes each regenerate child.

O blessed, thrice blessed are they,
Who, true to their spiritual birth,
Endeavour the image of Christ to display
In their pilgrimage here upon earth.

They have plighted fidelity's vow,
They have chosen the militant part;
The sign of allegiance, then traced on their brow,
Remains aye impress'd on the core of their heart.

In the storms and the strife of the world,
To “the Amen, the Faithful, and True,”
They look: o'er their head is his banner unfurl'd;
And, trusting in that to subdue,
They with faith, hope, and charity hold
Right on, where their “Captain” has trod;
See in prospect the gates of his kingdom unfold,
And rejoice in the promis'd effulgence of God.