2

Ah! hero ne'er, nor saint,

The secret load might know
With which his spirit waxeth faint;

His is a Saviour's woe:
" If thou hadst known, e'en thou,

At least in this thy day,
The message of thy peace! but now

'T is passed for aye away.”
And doth my Saviour weep

Over his people's sin,
Because we will not let him keep

The souls he died to win ?
Ye hearts that love the Lord,

If at this sight ye burn,
See that in thought, in deed, in word,

Ye hate what made him mourn.

3

P. M. 271. MRS. HEMANS.

“My soul is exceeding sorrowful.” · He knelt, – the Saviour knelt and prayed, When but his Father's

eye Looked through the lonely garden's shade,

On that dread agony!
Messiah cried with suppliant breath,

Bowed down with sorrow unto death. 2 He knew them all, — the doubt, the strife,

The faint, perplexing dread;
The mists that hang o’er parting life,

All darkened round his head ;
And the Deliverer knelt to pray, -

Yet passed it not, that cup, away! 3 It passed not, — though the stormy wave

Had sunk beneath his tread;

It passed not, — though to him the grave

Had yielded up its dead.
But there was sent him from on high

A gift of strength for man to die. 4 And was his mortal hour beset

With anguish and dismay ?
How may we meet our conflict yet,

In the dark, narrow way?
How, but through hiin, that path who trod,
The man of grief, - the Son of God!

L. M.

272.

MONTGOMERY.

Christ's Passion.

1 The morning dawns upon the place,

Where Jesus spent the night in prayer;
Through brightening glooms behold his face,

No form or comeliness is there.
2 Last eve, by those he called his own,
Betrayed, forsaken, or denied,
He met his enemies alone,

In all their malice, rage, and pride.
3 No guile within his mouth is found,

He neither threatens nor complains ; Meek as a lamb for slaughter bound, Dumb 'midst his murderers he remains. 4 But hark! he prays, - 't is for his foes, He speaks, - 't is comfort to his friends, Answers, – and paradise bestows; 6'T is finished ! " here the conflict ends.

5 He dies : the veil is rent in twain ;

Darkness o'er all the land is spread;

High, without tempest, rolls the main, Earth trembles, graves give up their dead. 6 " Truly, this was the Son of God!”

Though in a servant's mean disguise, –
And bruised beneath the Father's rod,
Not for himself, for man he dies.

L. M.

273.

BULFINCA.

Christ the Sufferer.

1 O SUFFERING Friend of human kind!

How, as the fatal hour drew near,
Came thronging on thy holy mind
The images of grief and fear.
2 Gethsemane's sad midnight scene,

The faithless friends, the exulting foes,
The thorny crown, the insult keen,
The
scourge,

the
cross,

before thee rose. 3 Did not thy spirit shrink dismayed,

As the dark vision o'er it came;
And, though in sinless strength arrayed,

Turn, shuddering, from the death of shame? 4 Onward, like thee, through scorn and dread,

May we our Father's call obey,
Steadfast thy path of duty tread,
And rise, through death, to endless day.

L. M.

274.

CHRISTIAN PSALMIST.

« Behold the Man."

1 BEHOLD the man! how glorious he!
Before his foes he stands unawed,
And, without wrong or blasphemy,
He claims to be the Son of God.

2 Behold the man! by all condemned,

Assaulted by a host of foes ;
His person and his claims contemned,

A man of sufferings and of woes. 3 Behold the man!

ak he seems, His awful word inspires no fear; But soon must he who now blasphemes

Before his judgment-seat appear. 4 Behold the man! though scorned below,

He bears the greatest name above;
The angels at his footstool bow,
And all his royal claims approve.

78. M.

275.

MONTGOMERY.

Christ our Example in Suffering.

i Go to dark Gethsemane,

Ye that feel temptation's power,
Your Redeemer's conflict see,
Watch with him one bitter hour.
Turn not from his griefs away,

Learn of Jesus Christ to pray.
2 Follow to the judgment-hall,

View the Lord of life arraigned.
O the wormwood and the gall!
O the pangs his soul sustained!
Shun not suffering, shame, or loss;

Learn of him to bear the cross.
3 Calvary's mournful mountain climb;

There, admiring at his feet,
Mark that miracle of time,
God's own sacrifice complete ;

“It is finished,” hear him cry;
Learn of Jesus Christ to die.

4 Early hasten to the tomb,

Where they laid his breathless clay;
All is solitude and gloom :
Who has taken him away?
Christ is risen; he meets our eyes.
Saviour, teach us so to rise.

6 & 10s. M. 276. MARTINEAU's Col

Looking unto Jesus.
1 Thou, who didst stoop below,
To drain the

cup

of

woe, And wear the form of frail mortality,

Thy blessed labors done,

Thy crown of victory won, Hast passed from earth, passed to thy home on high.

2. It was no path of flowers,

Through this dark world of ours, Beloved of the Father, thou didst tread;

And shall we in dismay

Shrink from the narrow way, When clouds and darkness are around it spread?

3 O Thou, who art our life,

Be with us through the strife ; Thy own meek head by rudest storms was bowed;

Raise thou our eyes above,

To see a Father's love Beam, like a bow of promise, through the cloud.

4 Our eyes behold thee not,

Yet hast thou not forgot Those who have placed their hope, their trust, in thee;