Amenophis and Other Poems Sacred and Secular :: :: University of Virginia Library

Once Man with man, now God with God above us,
Loving us here, and after death to love us:
Enough is this for us, O Saviour dear,
When to Thine altar our faint feet draw near.

‘Come unto me all that are heavy laden,
I will refresh you; mine is love unfading:’
It is enough; we ask not where Thou art,
Present in space, and in the faithful heart.

—Memorial of the Death, and all it gave us,
Himself offers Himself to cleanse and save us;
Sacrifice still renew'd, yet still the same,—
The bloodless Lamb, the Cross without the shame.

Once in mean swaddling clothes and infant feature
The world's Creator deign'd to come as Creature;
So here behind these earthly signs' disguise
The Flesh He took for us in mystery lies.

O ye who named from Christ, should be Christ's wholly,
Mar not the Feast of Love with strife unholy!
Words are too weak that Presence to define,—
Here in Memorial, Sacrifice, and Sign.

—So long since Thou wast here, that to our seeming
Thou art like some fair vision seen in dreaming:
With glare and glow and turmoil, sigh and shout,
The world rolls on, and seems to bar Thee out.

Behind the midday sky the stars are shining;
O shine out on us in our sun's declining:
With loved ones lost, and loved ones yet to quit,
Were this life all, we could not bear with it!

—Once Man with man, now God with God above us
Who lov'st us here, and after death wilt love us;
When to Thine altar our faint feet draw near,
It is enough for us if Thou art here.