W. Garrett Horder, comp. The Poets’ Bible: New Testament. 1895.
The Circumcision of Christ
John Keble (17921866)T
And Thou beginn’st with woe,
To let the world of sinners see
That blood for sin must flow.
Thy tears upon the breast,
Are not enough—the legal sword
Must do its stern behest.
Pour’d on a victim’s head
Are those few precious drops of Thine,
Now first to offering led.
Of Christ’s unswerving faith
Given to His Sire, our souls to heal,
Although it cost His death.
To each true Jewish heart
In Gospel graces manifold
Communion blest impart.
As of an ocean vast,
Mounting in tides against the stream
Of ages gone and past.
As we and they are Thine;
Kings, Prophets, Patriarchs—all have part
Along the sacred line.
God’s mark is set on Thee,
That in Thee every faithful view
Both covenants might see.
And strong as is thy grace!
Saints parted by a thousand year,
May thus in heart embrace.
Who, fallen on faithless days,
Sighs for the heart-consoling view
Of those Heaven deign’d to praise?
With faithful Abraham here,
Whom soon in Eden thou shalt greet,
A nursing Father dear.
And would thy dull heart fain
Borrow of Israel’s minstrelsy
One high enraptured strain?
Here set thy feeble chant,
Here, if at all beneath the moon,
Is holy David’s haunt.
Cradled in care and woe?
And seems it hard, thy vernal years
Few vernal joys can show?
Sad on thy lonely heart,
From all the hopes and charms of earth
Untimely called to part?
The Giver of all good
Even from the womb takes no release
From suffering, tears, and blood.
First sow in holy fear:
So life a winter’s morn may prove
To a bright endless year.