Sonnets and Other Poems Chiefly Religious :: :: University of Virginia Library

“Thou art the Christ! the angel told
Thy birth before; the host of heaven rejoiced
When Thou wast born; a star arose to guide
The Magi to Thy cradle; Thou hast seen
And felt the Holy Spirit on Thee rest,
And Thou hast heard the Voice that called Thee Son;
—Why shouldst Thou famish in Thy Father's house?
If Thou art Heir of all things, if indeed
Thou art the Son of God, command this stone
That it may turn to bread.”

But He replied—
“I came on earth to do My Father's will;
And if it be His will to send Me food,
He can command the manna; and the life
Of man is not sustained by bread alone,
But by the words of God.”

No manna fell;

But God sustained Him, and He wandered on,
Into the Holy City, to the House
Of God. Two men beside had come to pray;
And Jesus heard them. One looked up and said—

“I thank Thee, God, I am not as other men,
Extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
Or even as this publican. I fast
Twice in the week; I pay the tithe of all;
Not only corn and oil and figs and wine—
To pay of these I count a thing of course—
But tithe of anise, cummin, mint, and rue,
And every herb that in my garden grows.”
The other dared not lift his eyes to heaven,
But smote upon his breast, and muttered low—
‘I am a sinner, and confess my sin;
I pray Thee, God, be merciful to me!”

And Jesus climbed the Temple's pinnacle,
And gazed adown the dizzy height, and saw
The people as they came and went. A Voice
Like that which in the desert spake of bread—
Or was it only thoughts within His heart?—
Whispered—

“By faith the Righteous One shall live:
Now prove thy faith! now cast Thee headlong down,
And God will give His angels charge of Thee
To bear Thee up in safety; and the crowds
Shall see, and fear, and wonder, and believe;
And Thou shalt teach the prating Pharisee
Who vaunts his works, what wonders faith can work;

And Thou shalt teach the contrite publican
That God is near the lowly and the meek.”

And Jesus answered—

“Not with such a sign
Can I rebuke the boaster and the proud,
Or teach that with My God forgiveness dwells.
If God command Me, I will cast Me down;
And if His angels bear Me, it is well;
If not, I am content to fall and die,
Or, if He will, to die upon a cross.
But He hath said, Tempt not the Lord thy God.”

And Jesus wandered silently away,
And climbed a snowy mountain height—the same
Whereon, before He died, He met and spake
With Moses and Elijah—and He fell
Into a trance; and, in a vision, saw
The glory of the realms of all the world
Spread out beneath Him:—Palestine, and Greece,
Egypt, and Rome, and all that Roman arms
Had won; nor only these, but lands unknown
Beyond where Alexander's conquest paused,
Beyond the source of Nile, beyond the plain
Where Cyrus perished, and beyond the sea
West of the pillars named of Hercules;—
He saw their glory, and He saw their guilt;
He saw the temples of their idol gods,
He saw the bloodshed of their wars, the smoke
Of ruined homesteads, and the captives borne
Away to bondage.

And a Voice again—
Or was it only thoughts within His heart?—
Whispered—

“Thou art the Christ, the Lord of all!
Thou art the Son of David, Thou the Priest
After the order of Melchizedec;
Thy God hath sworn to make Thine enemies
The footstool of Thy feet, and Thou shalt rule
The nations with an iron rod, and break
Their idols like a potsherd. Fire from heaven
Fell at Elijah's bidding to consume
His enemies; and fire from heaven shall fall,
And utterly destroy Thine enemies,
Thou greater than Elijah!—I ord and Christ,
Why tarriest Thou? all these by right are Thine;
Thy Father hath ordained Thee Heir of all;
Go, enter on Thine own inheritance!”

And Jesus said—

“For victories such as these
I care not, nor to call down fire from heaven.
I came not to destroy; I came to save.”

The Voice replied—

“The tyrant to destroy,
And save the lowly—therefore art Thou come!
Thou, the Messiah!—Underneath Thy reign
Peace shall abound while sun and moon endure;
And every man shall safely rest beneath
The shadow of his fig tree and his vine;
The children of the city of Thy God
Shall flourish as the grass upon the earth;

And prayer and praise shall unto Thee ascend
From every generation; and they all
Shall call Thee Blessed. Wherefore tarriest Thou?—
Thou, who art born to crush the Serpent's head!”

And Jesus spake and answered—

“Thus to crush
All idols into dust, and thus to gain
Deliverance for mankind from war and wrong,
Were easy as the lifting of My hand.
But I, the Son of Man, for harder strife
Have come, and higher victories than these.
Though I be born to crush the Serpent's head,
Yet in the strife I must Myself be crushed.
I laid the glory of My Father down,
And I was born of woman, and I toiled,
A village carpenter, at Nazareth;
And I will bear My cross unto the end:
And he that bids Me lay aside the cross
Bids Me not serve My Father, but the world;—
Yea, serve the Power of Evil; for I know,
Although thou speakest with an angel's tongue,
Thine is the Tempter's voice that tempted Eve,
Thine the Accuser's voice that slandered Job,
And thou the Serpent I was born to crush!”

He heard the Tempter's voice no more. He saw
Satan as lightning fallen down from heaven;
And angels brought Him manna, and they sang
Of brief affliction and unending joy;

The grave re-opened, and the light of heaven
Beyond it, and the Serpent crushed in death;
The tree of Eden planted, with its leaves
For healing of the nations, and its fruit
Of life eternal; death and hell and sin
Abolished, and the Father all in all.