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

The Temptation of Christ

William Croswell (1804–1851)

THOU who, for forty days and nights o’er-mastered all the might

Of Satan, and the fiercest pangs of famished appetite,—

O Saviour! leave us not alone to wrestle with our sin,

But aid us in these holy hours of solemn discipline.

Let not the tempter tempt us, Lord, beyond our strength to bear,

Though, in the desert of our woe, he wildly shrieks Despair!

Let not our humble confidence be in Thy promise stirred,

Nor clouds of dark distrust spring up between us and Thy word.

Nor let us yet be lifted up—by him, the prince of air,

To scale presumption’s dizzy height, and left to perish there;

Nor on the temple’s pinnacle, in our self-righteous pride,

Be set for Thee to frown upon, and demons to deride.

And, oh, when pleasure, power, and pomp around our vision swim,

And, through the soft, enchanting mist, he bids us worship him,

Assist us from the revelling sense the sorcerer’s spell to break,

And tread the arch-apostate down, Redeemer, for Thy sake.