Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

By The Prisoner of Love (1904). II. The Cup

Frederick William Orde Ward (1843–1922)

THERE is a Cup, the Saviour drank,

Who drained it to the very lees,

We take from God and humbly thank

When shadow falls and sunshine flees;

The sorrow which doth make the king

Who would be crowned by suffering

And knowledge which alone is rank.

We all must deeply drink the cup

Of grief, if we would enter in

Christ’s fellowship which raiseth up

The souls redeemed from their sin;

And then, when we have tasted death

In Him and trodden it beneath,

With God Himself at last we sup.

If it be possible, we say,

Let this affliction from me fly,

And bid me walk some softer way

Than that of Christ’s own Agony!

But there is Grace sufficient then,

For God is merciful to men—

And Heaven is opened as we pray.

Himself in trial by us stands

And strengthens us to bear it all,

The Cup He holdeth in His Hands

And on His Bosom breaks our fall;

He drinketh too the bitter first,

And leaves the sweetness for our thirst—

Who gives the powers with the commands.