Thursday before Easter.
“There followed Him a great company of women.”
—Gospel for the Day.
“There stood by the Cross of Jesus, His Mother.”
—John xix. 25.
Encircled by Christ's awful glory,
Her vestal radiance, faint and far,
Beams through some word of hallow'd story
Remotely as a virgin star,—
Whose quiv'ring brightness with uncertain gleam
Touches dark ocean's wave, or tips the wand'ring stream.
But, though we hail no “Queen of Heaven,”
Nor thrust a creature on His Throne
To Whom the Trinity have given
A right to reign there, all alone,—
That sainted Mary proved a second Eve
By contrast and by grace, regen'rate souls believe.
And, She endured that piercing “Sword”
Which prophecy had o'er her waved,
And lived to view her bleeding Lord
By whose dread Blood herself was saved,—
Nail'd on the Cross, incarnadined for death,
And thrill the shaken Earth by His departing breath!
But when from mortal space and time
Th' ascending Christ his Form withdrew,
Bath'd in the depths of grief sublime,—
Can words reveal what Mary knew
Of voiceless woe, as Calv'ry's hour return'd
Back on her bruisèd heart, that still a Son discern'd!
And, what to her, but exile, now,
Could this cold life of care have been,
Since He, Whom earth and heaven avow,
Had vanish'd from this weeping scene,
And she was doom'd companionless to roam,
Though shielded by St. John, in his Ephesian home?
Could Mary, in some realm divine
Of holy calm, or heavenly rest,
One throb of pain with bliss combine
In the meek shrine of her pure breast,—
She well might shudder, on God's throne to see
The “Handmaid” of the Lord, that Lord's own rival be!
O thou! in Whom two Natures blend
By Incarnation's awful plan,
Not less in heaven, our human Friend
Than while on earth, a homeless Man,—
Teach Thine elect to worship Thee aright,
With garments wash'd in Blood, through Thine own radiance bright.
Souls need not fence Thy Mercy-Seat
With interceding Saint, or Virgin;
Nor, can it be for man unmeet
When Faith her solemn plea is urging,—
Directly on that Lord of Love to call,
Where God Himself enshrines the Church's all-in-all.
