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Devotional Poems

By Emily Hickey

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31 THE SPIRIT INDEED IS WILLING, BUT THE FLESH IS WEAK
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31
THE SPIRIT INDEED IS WILLING, BUT THE FLESH IS WEAK

O three He calls to watch with Him close by the reddening sod
Where drops the sweat of agony, the agony of God.
O three of watch in sleep forgone, your flesh too weak will prove;
And angelhood shall comfort Him, and not your human love.
And more, yet more; the hour draws nigh, the traitor's This is He.
The kiss, the clash of swords and clubs, and ye to turn and flee.

49

And one of you with curse and oath will e'en deny the Friend
Who, loving in the world His own, had loved them to the end.
And one alone, to-morrow noon shall dare the shame and dread,
To stand beneath the cross till all shall be consummated.
Yet all you three in supreme love and supreme courage high
Shall will to suffer and work for Him, shall dare for Him to die.
Lord Jesus, Who hast bid Thy friends anear Thee watch to keep,
If earthly heaviness weigh down our eyelids and we sleep,
Speak Thou to us, as once to those Thy gentleness did speak,
The spirit truly wills aright, although the flesh be weak.
Oh, be the spirit willing then, to strive in might afresh,
And let the spirit's might o'ercome the weakness of the flesh.

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Bid us to cast the dread away, to fling the shame aside,
And follow on where these have led, for Thee who lived and died.