 | Sonnets and Other Poems Chiefly Religious |  |
11
GRACE FOR GRACE.
“Of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.”
John i. 16.
John i. 16.
“Love the gift is love the debt.”
Tennyson.
Tennyson.
Love may bestow itself, but not withdraw;
The gift of love, bestowed, becomes a debt.
Thus Love and Duty in the ring are set
Of holy Marriage, gems without a flaw;
And thus it is that Grace is one with Law
In regions higher and more holy still—
In His divinely human heart and will
Whose heavenly glory the apostles saw.
Not for our merit—merit we have none—
We claim the love of God's eternal Son,
And hope to see the brightness of His face;
For its own sake His love itself bestows,
And out of God's eternal fulness flows,
And for His grace gives ever fuller grace.
| Sonnets and Other Poems Chiefly Religious | |