Matin Bells and Scarlet and Gold By "F. Harald Williams"[i.e. F. W. O. Ward]. First Edition |
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A GOOD REPORT. |
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 | Matin Bells and Scarlet and Gold |  |
A GOOD REPORT.
O in a light most beautiful and sweet
Did Christ return from that drear dolorous land,
Crowned by His conquests, and with travelled feet
And benedictions in His open hand.
For He had triumphed over even death
And trod it low with His sublimer trust,
Which could not there be holden, and His breath
Enkindled to new life the mouldering dust;
He bade it blossom with a sudden power,
When the old prisoning grave was spoiled and rent,
In that immortal resurrection flower—
The ransomed soul's young fair enfranchisement.
Did Christ return from that drear dolorous land,
Crowned by His conquests, and with travelled feet
And benedictions in His open hand.
For He had triumphed over even death
And trod it low with His sublimer trust,
Which could not there be holden, and His breath
Enkindled to new life the mouldering dust;
He bade it blossom with a sudden power,
When the old prisoning grave was spoiled and rent,
In that immortal resurrection flower—
The ransomed soul's young fair enfranchisement.
Death was a “shadow,” as He said, and short
The tenure of its cold relaxing might,
And rich with comfort all the good report
He wrung from its inhospitable night.
For with the blessèd olive branch He came
Back from the deluge impotent to drown,
Which by subjected sin but He could tame
Alone and captive evermore keep down.
For those grim walls of silence and despair
Crumbled and fell before His righteous road,
That human hearts at length might thus repair
In Him their hopes and drop the weary load.
The tenure of its cold relaxing might,
And rich with comfort all the good report
He wrung from its inhospitable night.
For with the blessèd olive branch He came
Back from the deluge impotent to drown,
Which by subjected sin but He could tame
Alone and captive evermore keep down.
For those grim walls of silence and despair
Crumbled and fell before His righteous road,
That human hearts at length might thus repair
In Him their hopes and drop the weary load.
No sorrow was the message that He brought
Out of the darkness which had wrapt Him round,
And quenched a season sight but not the thought
Of everlasting Love unbid, unbound;
And not bereavement and the awful blank
In separation with its rayless gloom,
If for our future solace then He sank
Consenting to the judgment and the doom;
And not the natural pain which we must know
Though God Himself shall wipe away our tears,
And the sad sentence laid on man below
Inevitable as the eclipse of fears.
Out of the darkness which had wrapt Him round,
And quenched a season sight but not the thought
Of everlasting Love unbid, unbound;
And not bereavement and the awful blank
260
If for our future solace then He sank
Consenting to the judgment and the doom;
And not the natural pain which we must know
Though God Himself shall wipe away our tears,
And the sad sentence laid on man below
Inevitable as the eclipse of fears.
Far otherwise the news, when he had run
That dreadful race which now no more is dim,
In the great glory of the unsetting Sun,
For those who trust and truly follow Him.
He said that it was well for mortals thus
To go, and death would be a pleasant place,
The door of life, which did unclose to us
The fulness of His own exceeding grace.
And though the grief and trouble might not cease
Which only taught us in His strength to stand,
The secret of the very grave was peace
And just the entrance to the Promised Land.
That dreadful race which now no more is dim,
In the great glory of the unsetting Sun,
For those who trust and truly follow Him.
He said that it was well for mortals thus
To go, and death would be a pleasant place,
The door of life, which did unclose to us
The fulness of His own exceeding grace.
And though the grief and trouble might not cease
Which only taught us in His strength to stand,
The secret of the very grave was peace
And just the entrance to the Promised Land.
| Matin Bells and Scarlet and Gold | |