W. Garrett Horder, comp. The Poets’ Bible: New Testament. 1895.
Pentecost
John Keble (17921866)W
In power and wrath He came;
Before His feet the clouds were riven,
Half darkness and half flame:
The prostrate people lay,
Convinc’d of sin, but not of grace;
It was a dreadful day.
He came in power and love,
Softer than gale at morning prime
Hover’d His holy Dove.
In sudden torrents dread,
Now gently light, a glorious crown,
On every sainted head.
Wing’d with the sinner’s doom,
But these like tongues, o’er all the earth
Proclaiming life to come:
The voice exceeding loud,
The trump, that Angels quake to hear,
Thrill’d from the deep dark cloud,
Came down His flock to find,
A voice from heaven was heard abroad,
A rushing mighty wind.
At that high warning start;
Conscience gives back th’ appalling tone;
’Tis echoed in the heart.
The sinful world around;
Only in stubborn hearts and wills
No place for it is found.
A giddy whirl of sin
Fills ear and brain, and will not let
Heaven’s harmonies come in.
Open our ears to hear;
Let us not miss th’ accepted hour;
Save, Lord, by Love or Fear.