University of Virginia Library

previous section The Prisoner of Love
next section
295

September 12 THE BLEEDING HEART

“They shall look upon me whom they have pierced.”— Zech. xii. 10.

I had a vision of a Bleeding Heart,
An awful unasked token
Of Death wherein I had a monstrous part—
The Body by me broken;
No word by Christ was spoken,
But yet the silence stabbed me like a dart;
And under the eclipsed accusing sky,
I reared again the Cross of Calvary.
I stood beneath it and by these red hands
The biting nails were driven,
While shadow fell on all the shaken lands
And the great rocks were riven;
Though I was there forgiven,
Ere I had burst from sin's bleak iron bands.
He sighed and said, “My brother, now arise,
And sup with Me to-day in Paradise.”
Some drops of His most Precious Blood then fell
Upon me from that Altar,
And raised me in the damning hold of hell
Ere faith had time to falter;
And like a solemn psalter,
His tender Voice (that told me all was well)
In Pardon breathed on me a blessing, more
Than earth with its enchantments ever bore.
previous section The Prisoner of Love
next section