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

The Slaughter of the Innocents

Reginald Heber (1783–1826)

OH, weep not o’er thy children’s tomb,

O Rachel, weep not so!

The bud is cropt by martyrdom,

The flower in heaven shall blow.

Firstlings of faith! the murderer’s knife

Has missed its deadliest aim:

The God for whom they gave their life,

For them to suffer came.

Though feeble were their days and few,

Baptised in blood and pain;

He knows them, whom they never knew,

And they shall live again.

Then weep not o’er thy children’s tomb,

O Rachel, weep not so;

The bud is cropt by martyrdom,

The flower in heaven shall blow.