THE CRUCIFIXION.

Then his glance a felon turned,
Suffering at the sufferer's side,
And the grace that others spurned
Sought, nor was that grace denied.
Lo! there beams a heavenly smile
On the Saviour's pallid face,
As his anguish for a while

Gives to love and pity place.

But another, dearer claim

Touched that heart that beat so warm,

In a mother's holiest name

For that worn and fainting form.

Mary, once of angels blest!

Was that voice of anguish thine?

Lo! his eyes upon thee rest;

Hear his words of love divine!

Blessed Lord! Thy claim we own.
Not in triumph's loftiest hour,
When the blind thy might made known,
When the grave confessed thy power,

Do we feel our hearts subdued

As when thus we look to thee,

Mid the scoffing multitude,

Dying on the accursed tree!

179

XCVI.

"IT IS FINISHED."

JOHN XIX. 17-42.

He said, It is finished; and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. Verse 30.

"IT is finished!" Glorious word,

From thy lips, our suffering Lord!
Word of high triumphant might,
Ere thy spirit takes its flight.
It is finished! All is o'er;
Pain and scorn oppress no more.
Now no more, foreboding dread
Shades the path thy feet must tread;
No more fear lest in thine hour
Pain should patience overpower.
On the perfect sacrifice

Not a stain of weakness lies;
All hath righteously been done,
And the world's salvation won.
Champion, lay thine armor by;
"T is thine hour of victory!
All thy toils are now o'erpast;
Thou hast found thy rest at last.

"IT IS FINISHED."

Earthly wrongs no more shall grieve thee;

Heaven is opening to receive thee.

There the Everlasting One

Owns and crowns his holy Son.
Lift your heads, ye heavenly gates!
For his crown the conqueror waits.
Welcome in the King of glory,
Hero of earth's loftiest story,
Him who death and hell o'ercame,
Heir of more than human fame!

Nor before thine eyes alone
Rose the vision of that throne
Where the viewless presence hovers,
As the cloud the altar covers.
Far away through time's expanse
Burst on thine enraptured glance
Visions of a world renewed
Through the offering of thy blood.
Thousands to whose failing eyes
Thine example's light should rise,
Giving in affliction's hour
Part in thy celestial power;
Millions of each different clime,
Through that sacrifice sublime.
Brought to walk in holiness,
And their Father's love to bless;
These appear before thy sight
In a flood of heaven's own light.
Did the scenes thy heart engage
Of the blest millennial age,

181

When through all the ransomed world
War's red banner shall be furled,
When the slave shall pine no more,
Nor the dungeon's iron door
Close upon a human form, fid
But the heart, with virtue warm,
Everywhere its tribute raises
In one song of boundless praise; [!
While the love thy life hath taught,
The salvation thou hast wrought,
On the wide and glorious earth
Shall bestow its second birth?

THE RESURRECTION.

183

XCVII.

THE RESURRECTION.

MATTHEW XXVIII.

The angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.

AND thou art laid to rest

Verse 2.

Within earth's gloomy breast,

Revealer to the earth of truth divine!
Not by thy words alone.

Making thy Father known,

But his pure spirit beaming forth in thine.

Now thine exulting foes

Around thy deep repose

Arrange their guards, and seal the massive stone.
Vain is their prudence here;

It but reveals more clear
The awakening glory of God's holy Son.

With noon-tide lustre bright,
Breaking the gloom of night,

Descends a messenger from higher spheres;

The keepers shake with dread,

While he, so lately dead,

Forth from the tomb in majesty appears.