4.
“Why shouldest Thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty
man that cannot save?”
Yea, where else shall we find a solitude
Equal to this; in this His paradise,
In this the garden of His agonies,
Wherein alone the Second Adam stood,
Wherein alone He kneel'd down, sweating blood—
From Him withdrawn all human sympathies,
And bliss Divine all hidden from His eyes,
In wrath for our transgressions! Only good,
He bows beneath the wickedness of all,
And prays like some sin-burden'd criminal:
While groans of sick creation through all time,
And all the woes that flow'd from Adam's crime,
Concentrate were in that dread agony,
And found their utterance in that sad cry.
