Sit down and take thy fill of joy

At God’s right hand, a bidden guest,

Drink of the cup that cannot cloy,

Eat of the bread that cannot waste.

O great Apostle! rightly now

Thou readest all thy Saviour meant,

What time His grave yet gentle brow

In sweet reproof on thee was bent.

“Seek ye to sit enthron’d by me?

Alas! ye know not what ye ask,

The first in shame and agony,

The lowest in the meanest task —

This can ye be? and came ye drink

The cup that I in tears must steep,

Nor from the ’whelming waters shrink

That o’er Me roll so dark and deep?”

“We can — Thine are we, dearest Lord,

In glory and in agony,

To do and suffer all Thy word;

Only be Thou for ever nigh.” —

“Then be it so — My cup receive,

And of My woes baptismal taste:

But for the crown, that angels weave

For those next Me in glory plac’d,

“I give it not by partial love;

But in My Father’s book are writ

What names on earth shall lowliest prove,

That they in Heaven may highest sit.”

Take up the lesson, O my heart;

Thou Lord of meekness, write it there,

Thine own meek self to me impart,

Thy lofty hope, thy lowly prayer.

If ever on the mount with Thee

I seem to soar in vision bright,

With thoughts of coming agony,¹¹⁷¹¹⁷St. Matthew xvii. 12. “Likewise shall also the Son of Man suffer of them.” This was just after the Transfiguration.

Stay Thou the too presumptuous flight:

Gently along the vale of tears

Lead me from Tabor’s sunbright steep,

Let me not grudge a few short years

With thee t’ward Heaven to walk and weep:

Too happy, on my silent path,

If now and then allow’d, with Thee

Watching some placid holy death,

Thy secret work of love to see;

But, oh! most happy, should Thy call,

Thy welcome call, at last be given —

“Come where thou long hast storeth thy all

Come see thy place prepar’d in Heaven.”