The Altar or, Meditations in Verse On The Great Christian Sacrifice By The Author of "The Cathedral," [i.e. Isaac Williams] |
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4.
“Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth.”
For me, then, is this awful Sacrifice,
That Thou art drooping low, and dropping blood,
In this the stillness and the solitude
Of that dread hour, and every drop the price
Of thousands souls; and yet returning thrice,
In love for those who in an hour so rude
Were sleeping 'neath that dark green olive-wood,
With that still quiet voice of meek advice!
With wayward man He ever gently pleads,
But forces not his will, though standing by:
And yet for him, e'en while He speaks, He bleeds
At every vein, as seeing dangers nigh,
While he unconscious looks up vacantly,
And nought discerns, then sleeps, and little heeds.
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