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TUESDAY BEFORE EASTER
They gave Him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but He received in not. St. Mark xv. 23.
“Fill high the bowl, and spice it well, and pour The dews oblivious: for the Cross is sharp, The Cross is sharp, and He Is tenderer than a lamb. |
“He wept by Lazarus’ grave — how will He bear This bed of anguish? and His pale weak form Is worn with many a watch Of sorrow and unrest. |
“His sweat last night was as great drops of blood, And the sad burthen press’d Him so to earth, The very torturers paus’d To help Him on His way. |
“Fill high the bowl, benumb His aching sense With medicin’d sleep.” — O awful in Thy woe! The parching thirst of death Is on Thee, and Thou triest |
The slumb’rous potion bland, and wilt not drink: Not sullen, nor in scorn, like haughty man With suicidal hand Putting his solace by: |
But as at first Thine all-pervading look Saw from Thy Father’s bosom to the abyss Measuring in calm presage The infinite descent; |
So to the end, though now of mortal pangs Made heir, and emptied of Thy glory, awhile, With unaverted eye Thou meetest all the storm. |
Thou wilt feel all, that Thou mayst pity all; And rather wouldst Thou wreathe with strong pain, Than overcloud Thy soul, So clear in agony, |
Or lose one glimpse of Heaven before the time O most entire and perfect sacrifice, Renew’d in every pulse That on the tedious Cross |
Told the long hours of death, as, one by one, The life-strings of that tender heart gave way; E’en sinners, taught by Thee, Look Sorrow in the face, |
And bid her freely welcome, unbeguil’d By false kind solaces, and spells of earth: — And yet not all unsooth’d; For when was Joy so dear, |
As the deep calm that breath’d, “Father, forgive,” Or, “Be with Me in Paradise to-day?” And, though the strife be sore, Yet in His parting breath |
Love masters Agony; the soul that seem’d Forsaken, feels her present God again, And in her Father’s arms Contented dies away. |
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