Sacred Meditations and Moral Themes In Verse :: :: University of Virginia Library

We learn by suff'ring, while by faith we live,
And graces brighten as our griefs expand;
But where indeed, between the wo endured
And height of glory in a heaven to come
Of being, is the true connection found,—
Baffles our reason, in this cloud of flesh
Now to unfold. But this at least we learn,
The Head of manhood was a suff'ring Head,
And all his members, by their mystic pangs
But echo back what thy pure bosom felt,
Eternal Archetype of life and faith,
Whom all things emblem! Here alone there dawn
Truths that illumine what might else appear
Darkness infernal, deep, and black, and dense
To suffocation. Here some Aims profound
(Whose roots are in eternity's result)
Arrest the tear, and calm to chastened awe
The sigh'd rebellions of the soul within.—
The good shall suffer; but if goodness be
To nature fallen, but the noble part

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Of trial, when by sin-consuming grace
Seasoned and hallowed,—not for this repine
The brave adorers of The Crucified!
They glory rather in the racking fires;
The more of grief, the more of God they have,
And do (what Seraphim have never done)
Suffer for Christ!—man's pure distinction this!
His high prerogative, His peerless crown
Appointed. Devils for themselves endure,
And angels, quick as sunbeams, glide and go
At His command, and own Him Liege and Lord;
But Virtue, by the Church's heart revealed,
Mounts to a range sublimer, and excels
Beyond the burning Watchers round His throne:
For she can suffer; and by suff'ring teach
Lessons of Godhead, such as angels prize.