The Poems of John Byrom :: :: University of Virginia Library

Behold the tender Love of God! Behold
The Shepherd dying to redeem His Fold!
Who can declare it? Worthy to be known,
What Tongue can speak it worthily? His Own.
From His Own Sacred Lips the Theme began,
The glorious Gospel of God's Love to Man.

II

So great, so boundless was It, that He gave
His Only Son,—and for what End?—To save,

Not to condemn. If Men reject the Light,
They, of themselves, condemn themselves to Night;
God in His Son seeks only to display
In ev'ry Heart an everlasting Day.

III

“God hath so shown His Love to us,” says Paul,
“Even yet Sinners, that Christ died for all;”
Peter, that God's All-gracious Aim is this,
By Christ, to call us to eternal Bliss.
Of all th' inspir'd to understand the View,
Love is the Text, and Love the Comment too.

IV

The Ground to build all Faith and Works upon;
For “God is Love,” says the belovèd John,—
Short Word, but Meaning infinitely wide,
Including all that can be said beside;
Including all the joyfull Truths above
The Pow'r of Eloquence, for “God is Love.”

V

Think on the Proof that John from Jesus learn'd:
“In this was God's Amazing Love discern'd,
Because He sent His Son to us, that we

Might live thro' Him!” How plain it is to see
That, if in this, in ev'ry other Fact,
Where God is Agent, Love is in the Act;

VI

Essential Character (whatever word
Of diff'rent Sound in Scripture has occurr'd)
Of all that is ascrib'd to God, of all
That can by His Immediate Will befall:
The Sun's bright Orb may lose its shining Flame,
But Love remains unchangeably the same.

TUESDAY.

How Christ quencheth the Wrath of God in us.

I

The Saviour died, according to our Faith,
To quench, atone, or pacify a Wrath.
But “God is Love;” He has no Wrath His Own;
Nothing in Him to quench or to atone.
Of all the Wrath that Scripture has reveal'd,
The poor fall'n Creature wanted to be heal'd.

II

God, of His own pure Love, was pleas'd to give
The Lord of Life, that thro' Him it might live,—

Thro' Christ; because none other could be found
To heal the human Nature of its Wound.
This great Physician of the Soul had, sure,
In Him, Who gave Him, no Defect to cure.

III

He did, He suffer'd ev'ry Thing, that we
From Wrath, by Sin enkindled, might be free,—
The Wrath of God in us, that is, the Fire
Of burning Life without the Love-Desire,
Without the Light which Jesus came to raise,
And change the wrath into a joyful Blaze.

IV

The Wrath is God's, but in Himself unfelt;
As Ice and Frost are His, and Pow'r to melt.
Not even Man could any Wrath, as such,
Till he had lost his first Perfection, touch;
God has but One Immutable Good-will,
To bless His Creatures and to save from Ill.

V

Cordial or bitter a Physician's Draught,
The Patient's Health is in his ord'ring Thought;
God's Mercies or God's Judgments be the Name,
Eternal Health is His all-saving Aim.
“Vengeance belongs to God,”—and so it should,
For Love alone can turn it all to Good.

VI

All that in Nature by His Act is done,
Is to give Life, and Life is in His Son.
When His Humility, His Meekness finds
Healing Admission into willing Minds,
All Wrath disperses, like a gath'ring Sore;
Pain is its Cure, and it exists no more.

WEDNESDAY.

Christ satisfieth the Justice of God by fulfilling all Righteousness.

I

“Justice demandeth Satisfaction.”—Yes,
And ought to have it where Injustice is.
But,—there is none in God; it cannot mean
Demand of Justice where it has full Reign:
To dwell in Man it rightfully demands,
Such as he came from his Creator's Hands.

II

Man had departed from a righteous State,
Which he at first must have, if God create.
'Tis therefore call'd “God's Righteousness,” and must
Be satisfy'd by Man's becoming just;
Must exercise good Vengeance upon Men,
Till it regain Its Rights in them again.

III

This was the Justice for which Christ became
A Man, to satisfy Its righteous Claim;
Became Redeemer of the Human Race,
That Sin in them to Justice might give Place.
To “satisfy” a just and righteous Will
Is neither more nor less than to “fulfill.”

IV

It was in God the loving Will that sought
The Joy of having Man's Salvation wrought;
Hence, in His Son so infinitely pleas'd
With Righteousness fulfill'd and Wrath appeas'd—
Not with mere Suff'ring which He never wills,
But with mere Love That triumph'd over Ills.

V

'Twas tender Mercy,—by the Church confess'd,
Before she feeds the sacramental Guest,
Rememb'ring Him Who offer'd up His Soul
“A Sacrifice for Sin, full, perfect, whole,
Sufficient, satisfactory,”—and all
That Words (how short of Merit!) can recall.

VI

And when receiv'd His Body and His Blood,
The Life enabling to be just and good,—

Off'ring available thro' Him alone,
Body and Soul a Sacrifice her own,
From Him, from His,—so, Justice has Its due,
Itself restor'd, not any thing in Lieu.

THURSDAY.

Christ the Beginner and Finisher of the New Life in Man.

I

Dead as Men are in Trespasses and Sins,
Whence is it in them that new Life begins?
'Tis that, by God's great Mercy, Love and Grace
The Seed of Christ is in the Human Race,—
That inward, hidden Man, that can revive
And, “dead in Adam, rise in Christ alive.”

II

Life natural and Life Divine possess'd
Must needs unite, to make a Creature bless'd,—
The first, a feeling Hunger and Desire
Of what it cannot of itself acquire;
Wherein the second entering to dwell,
Makes all an Heav'n that would be else an Hell.

III

As only Light all Darkness can expel,
So was His Conquest over Death and Hell

The only possible, effectual Way
To raise to Life what Adam's Sin could slay.
Death by the falling, by the Rising Man
The Resurrection of the Dead, began.

IV

This Heav'nly Parent of the human Race
The Steps that Adam fell by could retrace;
Could bear the Suff'rings requisite to save;
Could die, a Man, and triumph o'er the Grave.
This for our Sakes Incarnate Love could do;
Great is the Mystery, and greatly true.

V

Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs and the Choir
Of holy Virgin Witnesses conspire
To animate a Christian to endure
Whatever Cross God gives him for his Cure,—
Looking to Jesus Who has led the way
From Death to Life, from Darkness into Day.

VI

Unmov'd by earthly Good or earthly Ill,
The Man Christ Jesus wrought God's Blesséd Will;
Death, in the Nature of the Thing, that Hour
Wherein He died, lost all its deadly Pow'r;
Then, then was open'd, by what He sustain'd,
The Gate of Life, and Paradise regain'd.

FRIDAY.

How the Sufferings and Death of Christ are available to Man's Salvation.

I

With Hearts deep-rooted in Love's Holy Ground
Should be ador'd this Mystery profound
Of God's Messiah suff'ring in our Frame,
The Lamb Christ Jesus—blessed be His Name!—
Dying in this Humanity of ours,
To introduce His own Life-giving Pow'rs.

II

Herein is Love! Descending from His Throne,
The Father's Bosom, for our Sakes alone,
What Earth, what Hell, could wrathfully unite
Of Ills, He vanquish'd with enduring Might;
Legions of Angels ready at Command,
Singly He chose to bear and to withstand:—

III

To bear, intent upon Mankind's Relief,
Ev'ry Excess of ev'ry Shame and Grief,—
Of inward Anguish past all Thought severe,
Such as Pure Innocence alone could bear.
Dev'lish Temptation, Treachery, and Rage,
Naked, for us, did Innocence engage.

IV

Nail'd to a Cross It suffer'd, and forgave;
And show'd the Penitent Its Pow'r to save;

Its Majesty confess'd by Nature's Shock,
Darkness and Earthquake, and the rended Rock,
And opening Graves,—the Prelude to that Pow'r
Which rose in Suff'ring Love's momentous Hour.

V

No other Pow'r could save, but Jesus can;
The Living God was in the Dying Man;
Who, perfected by Suff'rings, from the Grave
Rose in the Fulness of all Pow'r to save,
With that one blesséd Life of God to fill
The vacant Soul that yieldeth up its Will.

VI

To learn is ev'ry pious Christian's Part
From his great Master this most Holy Art;
This our high Calling, Privilege, and Prize:
With Him to suffer, and with Him to rise,—
To live,—to die,—meek, patient, and resign'd
To God's good Pleasure with a Christ-like Mind.

SATURDAY.

How Christ by his Death overcame Death.

I

Jesus is crucified,—the previous Scene
Of our Salvation and His glorious Reign—.
Mysterious Process,—though by Nature's Laws,

Such an Effect demanded such a Cause;
For none but He could form the grand Design,
And raise anew the human Life Divine!

II

No less a Mystery can claim Belief
Than what belongs to our Redeeming Chief.
Divine and Supernatural indeed
The Love that mov'd the Son of God to bleed;
But what He was and did, in each Respect,
Was real Cause producing its Effect.

III

Children of Adam needs must share his Fall,
Children of Christ can re-inherit All.
This was the One, and therefore Chosen, Way
For Love to manifest its full Display.
Absurd the Thought of arbitrary Plans;
Nature's one, true Religion this,—and Man's!

IV

All that we know of God, and Nature too,
Proves the Salvation of the Gospel true;
Where all unites in One Consistent Whole,
The Life of God renew'd within the Soul,—
Renew'd by Christ: He only could restore
The Heav'n in Man to what it was before;

V

Could raise God's Image, clos'd in Death by Sin,
And raise Himself, the Light of Life, therein,—

The One Same Light that makes angelic Bliss;
That spreads an Heav'n thro' Nature's whole Abyss,—
The Light of Nature, and the Light of Men,
That gives the Dead His Pow'r to live again.

VI

“The Way, the Truth, the Life,”—whatever Terms
Preferr'd, 'tis Him that ev'ry Good affirms
The One True Saviour; all is Dung and Dross
In saving Sense, but Jesus and His Cross.
All Nature speaks, all Scripture answers thus:
“Salvation is the Life of Christ in us.”