The Circumcision of Christ.
“It is the glory of God to conceal a thing.”
—Prov. xxv. 2.
“This is a great mystery.”
—Ephes. v. 32.
“Obedient to the law for man.”
—Collect for the Circumcision.
Weakness of faith is want of power
In earthly type some heavenward truth to see,
When Christ, in God's predestined hour,
Descends by sacramental grace to thee,
Shrouding His Presence in such gift divine
With outward symbol, and appropriate sign.
Ere forfeit Eden felt a blight,
Or, Sin defeatured Soul's primeval trace,
By dark'ning o'er with guilty night
What beam'd at first in Man's unfallen race,—
Ev'n then, a sacramental type and tree
Emblem'd to Faith far more than Sense could see.
Under a veil did Godhead choose
To hide some glories from the gaze of Earth,
And not by Heaven's immediate views
At once discover, in their open worth,
Almighty secrets, which pertain to Him
Whose Throne is girt by wing-veil'd Seraphim.
And thus, a harmony we find
In all which Mercy condescends to do,—
Laws of proportion, which mankind
Might well consider, and revere them, too;
For, God Incarnate is the Root of all
In Heaven's benignancy, since Adam's fall.
When pale alarm disciples thrill'd
Of old, as once their risen Lord appear'd,
And with melodious accent fill'd
The air around them, by His voice revered,—
“Handle and see,” His awful Goodness cried,
Your living Master is the same Who died.
And thus, in shroud material hid,
Doth grace eternalise the Saviour's tone,
And still our trembling reason bid
The Lord of Sacraments and Love to own:
“Handle and see,” those pregnant Symbols cry,
His grace dwells here, Whose glory fills the sky!
A mental antichrist is Mind,
When Reason dares o'er Revelation mount,
And, with rejecting passion blind,
Disputes the channel which conducts the fount,
Whence Grace comes gliding in its lapse of love
Down to man's heart, from Christ's own Heart above.
As God in flesh did condescend
Celestial glories to allay, and hide,
So the pure Spirit deigns to blend
The mercies, which to outward means are tied,
With elements of earth, and space, and time,
Whose weakness makes the Wonder more sublime!
