The Altar or, Meditations in Verse On The Great Christian Sacrifice By The Author of "The Cathedral," [i.e. Isaac Williams] |
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 | The Altar |  |
95
4.
“If one died for all, then were all dead.”
Each day he lives is man condemn'd to die,
By One Who sits within the Judgment-hall
Rais'd in the heart of every criminal,
Whose righteous sentence no one can put by:
And then the stern decree to ratify,
Sleep still returns in night's o'ershadowing pall,
And sets death's stamp and image on us all.
To this Thy condemnation would I fly,
That self-condemn'd, while o'er myself I grieve,
I may in this, Thy dying, find reprieve:
But as Thou in Thy love, in this our stead,
As one with guilt oppress'd dost hang Thy Head,
I would put on my own mortality
By dying to myself, and live to Thee.
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