“THY WILL BE DONE.”
A Painting by Sir Noel Paton.
I.—THE PAINTING.
“No earthly beauty shines in him,
To draw the carnal eye.”
'Twas in the painter's choice: he might have framed
A figure more commanding, and a face
Earthlier fairer and of finer grace,
And none that loves the Saviour would have blamed.
But wiser he: so should a form that aimed
At drawing all men to him take a place
No ways superior to the common race,
In proof he was not of their state ashamed.
And so—no hero, cased as if in mail
With adventitious halo of romance;
No strong-built athlete, never known to ail,
Proud of his strength, defiant in his glance;
But looking as if liable to fail,
With nothing to commend him or enhance.
II.—TO THE PAINTER.
Creator of The Christ! when first I stood
Before thy handiwork, and overawed
Beheld the mystery of the Son of God
Sinless yet suffering in the midnight wood,
Suffering, and yet to suffering quite subdued,
How could I think of thee? how could I laud
The power that pained me so? or how applaud
In presence of that brow with blood bedewed?
And yet I owe a dearer debt to thee
Than I have paid to any: there will rise
Within my memory Paul; yet even he,
The great Apostle, failed to realise
As thou hast done, for thou hast made me see
The Christ in Scotland with my actual eyes!
Great Painter! unto thee the awful dower
Of genius has been given to dare and do,—
To image Deity in pain, pursue
The image into act, hour after hour,
And bid it live! I tremble for the power,
God-lent and (surely for great ends) to few,
That thus creates the agony anew
Which God hid in Gethsemanë's dark bower!
—For they will come, the idle and the rude,
And these will praise thy skill, and those will blame;
And some, indulgent of a prying mood,
Will stand and stare, departing as they came;
And thou wilt seem, thy work misunderstood,
In these to put the Lord to open shame!
