W. Garrett Horder, comp. The Poets’ Bible: New Testament. 1895.
“He shall bring all Things to your Remembrance”
Edward Hayes Plumptre (1821–1891)T
Far out of sight;
Each gracious word by day,
Each prayer by night;
But dim, and weak, and faint their memory proved,
They scarce could tell the words and acts of Him they loved.
For Angel’s thought,
The lonely midnight hour
The sense o’erwrought,—
These shone far off in dim and hazy gleam,
As when one wakes from sleep and finds ’tis but a dream.
Paints some loved face,
Bids sunbeams work his will
On scenes of grace,
Too soon the light-born picture fades away,
That living face and form, that landscape may not stay.
To stay its flight,
To fix it ere it fail
All out of sight;
What flash from heaven, or quick, electric thrill
Can once again the dull cold grey with life refill?
The hour arrived;
Hope was with memory crowned,
Old scenes revived;
All He had said or done on shore or sea,
In crowded Temple courts, or wilds of Galilee.
The noon-tide heat,
White waves in stormy night,
The still retreat,
The morning mist, the fire upon the beach,
The eager, naked plunge that Presence loved to reach.
Rose clear to view,
Strong prayer’s ecstatic trance,
Seen but by few,
Wonder and anger, pity, love, and joy,
Stern frown for feigning Scribe, and smiles for fisher’s boy.
Were now made clear;
High wisdom they could keep,
Once hard to bear;
New meanings flashed upon the inward eye,
And brought the buried past once more to fancy nigh.
What once we knew;
But He is with us yet,
That Spirit true;
He will old thoughts, hope, fear, and love revive,
And keep Faith’s brightest dreams in heart and soul alive.
That Lord of Truth,
In withered age and sear,
Renew our youth;
We with cleans’d eyes through shadows see the Form,
And hear the well-known Voice through mutterings of the storm.