The Sanctuary A Companion in Verse for the English Prayer Book. By Robert Montgomery |
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The Innocents' Day.
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 | The Sanctuary |  |
The Innocents' Day.
“Almighty God, who madest infants to glorify Thee by their deaths.”
—Collect for the Day.
The meek-eyed darlings of His grace divine,
Who lisp'd in martyrdom Emanuel's name,—
Well may the Church their festival enshrine
And crown dead Infants with celestial fame.
Who lisp'd in martyrdom Emanuel's name,—
Well may the Church their festival enshrine
And crown dead Infants with celestial fame.
Garlands of beauty, bathed in Jesu's Blood,
Their bleeding innocence of brow adorn
Who, ere they chose the evil or the good,
Left weeping Rachel in her woe forlorn.
Their bleeding innocence of brow adorn
Who, ere they chose the evil or the good,
Left weeping Rachel in her woe forlorn.
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Nurslings for Glory, by their God reclaim'd,
Back to His Heart, their everlasting Home,
By guilt unblotted, and remorse unshamed,—
Welcomed in Christ, lo! sinless martyrs come.
Back to His Heart, their everlasting Home,
By guilt unblotted, and remorse unshamed,—
Welcomed in Christ, lo! sinless martyrs come.
Their palms were pains, whose early suff'ring taught
The future Passion of their infant Lord,—
Confessing babes, by martyr-likeness wrought
To mystic oneness with th' Incarnate Word.
The future Passion of their infant Lord,—
Confessing babes, by martyr-likeness wrought
To mystic oneness with th' Incarnate Word.
They spake by Blood, what language could not speak,—
Firstlings of Grace, whose slaughter proved a sign
How God in them could glorify the weak,
And round the cradle cast a spell divine.
Firstlings of Grace, whose slaughter proved a sign
How God in them could glorify the weak,
And round the cradle cast a spell divine.
Men gaze on childhood with unthinking glee,
Or vacant sentiment, which seems no more
Than laughing joyance, in its lightness, free
As sun-lit wave that warbles on the shore;
Or vacant sentiment, which seems no more
Than laughing joyance, in its lightness, free
As sun-lit wave that warbles on the shore;
But, by the myst'ry of the Church embraced,
Children to higher spheres of thought ascend,
And on them, by no with'ring time effaced,
The blood-red shadows of the Cross descend.
Children to higher spheres of thought ascend,
And on them, by no with'ring time effaced,
The blood-red shadows of the Cross descend.
As Christ received all children, when He took
One little trembler in His arms of old,
Casting on cherub-features that fond look
Love's inward eye by faith may still behold,—
One little trembler in His arms of old,
Casting on cherub-features that fond look
Love's inward eye by faith may still behold,—
So, in those sainted Innocents, which died
Under the slaughter-ban of Herod's sword,
Parents may see for ever sanctified
The pangs which link all infants to the Lord.
Under the slaughter-ban of Herod's sword,
Parents may see for ever sanctified
The pangs which link all infants to the Lord.
Touch'd by His Cross, ere yet by sin defiled,
Myriads of Babes, at Jesu's birth, were slain,
To prove, His death-pang vibrates through a child,
And infant-martyrs with Confessors reign.
Myriads of Babes, at Jesu's birth, were slain,
To prove, His death-pang vibrates through a child,
And infant-martyrs with Confessors reign.
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Hence, weeping mothers in their childless woe,
Learn from dead Innocence, beneath the Cross,
When back to Heaven infantile spirits go,—
For God to suffer, is to gain by loss.
Learn from dead Innocence, beneath the Cross,
When back to Heaven infantile spirits go,—
For God to suffer, is to gain by loss.
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