University of Virginia Library

Glory to grief! when thus for God endured;
'Tis but the pang a Saviour's bosom felt,
Re-echoed, and by peerless faith prolong'd.
The Man of Sorrows forms no men of smiles;
Our hearts must bathe in His baptismal fire,
Or ne'er be whiten'd; Cross and Crown were His:
We grant it; but, in order each He took;
The first He suffer'd, ere the last He wore.
And as the Bridegroom, must the Bride be form'd,—
Repeat His Cross, and then reflect His Crown;
That Like on earth, in heaven alike may prove,
In grief below, in glory, one above!
So, in eternal consciousness to come,
Salvation will be sympathy entire
'Tween Head and Members—unity august!
When Christ in each will Self from all absorb.

Meanwhile, to us, Eternal Spirit! grant
The wisdom meek, which lives on truth divine,
However veil'd; a waiting mind impart;
And in our weakness show our strength to dwell.
Like as of old, a pensive Learner sat
Low at His feet, and listened to her Lord,
Absorb'd and self-renouncing, be our soul
Before the Cross in docile rev'rence bent.
For Thou, O Christ! amid the fires hast been;
And o'er the flames, which on Thy church advanced,
The promise, “with you, till the end of time,”
Breathed like the spell of some almighty breeze,
And cool'd them into impotence, or calm.—
No! never hath the murd'rous hoof of Hell
Trampled the heart from out the church of heaven;
Within her, life, when all seem'd lifeless, glow'd;
Within her, grace, when all seem'd graceless, dwelt;
Within her, truth, when all seem'd truthless, reign'd;
While, ever and anon, amid the gloom
Which Priest, or Tyrant, or the Devil made,
Star after star in radiant grandeur rose
To shame the midnight of the soul away.
But, chief o'er all the galaxy of lights
To stud the firmament of christian fame,
Shone Luther forth,—that miracle of men!
A gospel-hero, who with faith sublime
Fulmined the lightnings of God's flaming Word
Full on the towers of Superstition's home,
Till lo! they crumbled; and his with'ring flash
Yet sears the ruin with victorious play.

But thou, who o'er the church a thoughtful mind
Haply in moods of mournful awe hast bent,
Revere the fact, whose deep foundations lie
Far in the Infinite, beyond the wings
Of faith, though plumed with apostolic strength,
To follow:—Christ hath God with man conjoin'd
By union so unutterably close,
Divine, unfathom'd, and for ever firm,
That sun shall wither, all the stars wax pale,
Mountains depart, the heavens to air dissolve,
And the dread universe itself shall die,
But, this Conjunction shall unweaken'd stand
When Time is dead, and Nature drops extinct
Into her grave eternal. Boundless truth!
Which out of Deity all other dwarfs
To less than littleness, beyond compare.
All unions type it; all connections preach;
Nature, and art, and pure affection's ties
Are fill'd with emblems, shadowy, dim, and faint,
Th' exceeding glory of this bond to tell:
Wherein, by unity of mystic power,
Christ and His Church are into One transform'd
Colossal Person, Spirit, Life, and Frame,
And Fellowship, and Feeling. Let that Church
Suffer a pang—the Saviour feels it too!
Touch but a Member, and you thrill the Head
With shock electric, on his Throne perceived;
And therefore, Tyrants! when ye wound a hair
Of God's anointed, up to heaven your wrong
Ascendeth, and the heart of Jesus strikes!
Rays in the sun are not so brightly close,
Trees to their root are not so firmly knit,
And streams to fountains not so close allied,
Body with breath, and both with soul combined
Together, as the Church and Christ cohere.
Hence Earth, nor Heaven, nor Hell that fights with each,
The Bridegroom from his sainted Bride can tear.
Thy Maker is thy Husband, Church elect!
And rich eternity thy radiant dower.
And thus, we lift the shout, and song of faith
Victorious: for the Oneness is so true
Between the members and their living Head,
In vain creation may be tax'd for types
Or teaching shadows, to portray its power,
Since mere analogy in light is lost;
Upward, and heavenward illustration mounts,
Till, near the throned Almighty, overawed,
Faith cannot soar, but folds her duteous wing,
Backward recoils, and trembles into prayer.