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Home  »  The Poets’ Bible  »  The Ascension of Christ

W. Garrett Horder, comp. The Poets’ Bible: New Testament. 1895.

The Ascension of Christ

Philip Stanhope Worsley (1835–1866)

NOTHING now is left to do,

All the labour is gone through,

Christ hath bought us with His Blood,

Proved the work, and found it good,

Sealed, and writ with iron pen,

The unutterable Amen.

Look not for the fiery car

Borne above the winds afar,

Where the Angels’ Horses beat

Golden air with flying feet,

Flaming by a path untrod

In among the stars of God.

As to earth with no high name,

Nor like earthly Kings He came,

Now rejected of His Own

Grandly quiet and alone

He returneth to His Rest,

Back into the Father’s Breast.

Only by a chosen few

Who believe His Promise true,

Eat His Bread and drink His Cup,

He is seen as He goes up,

Till the cloud, that waiting lies

Veils Him from their yearning eyes.

On the pure lips, ere He passed,

Words of Blessing were the last,

His receding Hands, outspread,

Pour Redemption on their head,

But the cloud comes in between,

And the Form is no more seen.

Spake beside them in their sight

Two men robed in shining white—

Why in wonder thus do ye

Gaze, O Men of Galilee?

Hence! nor from the Work refrain

Till your Christ shall come again.

Then into the world they fare,

And His Love goes with them there;

To life’s daily talks they turn,

And His secret Presence learn,

While they do His gracious Will,

All is good and nothing ill.

Comes a Day when on the earth

The new Kingdom shall have birth,

And with many a wondrous Sign

Judah shall arise and shine;

But the season and the hour,

These are in the Father’s power.

Now let us new comfort draw

From the Vision which they saw,

And ourselves example take

From the word those Angels spake.

Nor from the good work refrain

Till our Christ shall come again.

And if here in light so dim,

Toil itself is sweet for Him,

If, when under clouds we go,

From the Cross true pleasures flow,

What if ever we should stand,

Crowned in the Celestial Land,

With the Saints at God’s Right Hand!