4.
“If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.”
Christ rises;—lightning-stricken at the sight,
The arméd soldiery, who at the tomb
Kept their unholy watch, and walked the gloom,
Fall back, their faces hide in dread affright,
And like the scaréd shadows of the night
Hasten away: as when the aerial dome
The rising moon doth suddenly illume,
With silent intervention calm and bright
Just rising, and the clouds departing fly,
And flying feebly catch her silver ray.
E'en so those Heathen thoughts which held their sway,
And ever in the heart were hiding nigh,
When Christ doth visit us before His way
Shall flee, and He shall fill the untroubled sky.
