I have a home on earth I cannot leave, I have a friend on earth I cannot grieve: Come down to me, I cannot mount to you.' 'Nay, choose between us both, Choose as you are lief or loth: You cannot keep these things and have me too.' 11 November 1858. FOR HENRIETTA POLYDORE ON the land and on the sea Jesus keep both you and me : Going out and coming in, Christ keep us both from shame and sin: In this world, in the world to come, Keep us safe and lead us home: To-day in toil, to-night in rest, Be best beloved and love us best. 16 January 1859. ASH WEDNESDAY JESUS, do I love Thee? All the virgins love Thee. I show as a blot Blood hath cleansèd not, As a barren spot In thy fruitful lot; I, fig-tree fruit-unbearing, Thou, righteous Judge unsparing: A CHRISTMAS CAROL BEFORE the paling of the stars, Born in a stable Cradled in a manger, In the world His hands had made Born a stranger. Priest and King lay fast asleep In Jerusalem, Young and old lay fast asleep In crowded Bethlehem : Saint and Angel, ox and ass, Kept a watch together, Before the Christmas daybreak Jesus on his Mother's breast In the stable cold, Let us kneel with Mary Maid, With Joseph bent and hoary, With Saint and Angel, ox and ass, To hail the King of Glory. 26 August 1859. CHRIST OUR ALL IN ALL (From 26 August 1859 to before 1893.) The ransomed of the Lord. THY lovely saints do bring Thee love, Incense and joy and gold; Fair star with star, fair dove with dove, Beloved by Thee of old. I, Master, neither star nor dove, Have brought Thee sins and tears; Yet I too bring a little love Amid my flaws and fears. A trembling love that faints and fails Yet still is love of Thee, A wondering love that hopes and hails Thy boundless Love of me; A spark, O Jesu, from Thy fire, Sweet are the waters of Thy shore'less sea, Make sweet our waters that make haste to Thee; Pour in Thy sweetness, that ourselves may be Sweetness to Thee. Before 1893. An exceeding bitter cry. CONTEMPT and pangs and haunting fears Too late for hope, too late for ease, Too late for rising from the dead; Too late, too late to bend my knees, Or bow my head, Or weep, or ask for tears. Hark! ... One I hear Who calls to me: 'Give Me thy thorn and grief and scorn, Give Me thy ruin and regret. Press on thro' darkness toward the morn: One loves thee yet: Have I forgotten thee?' Lord, Who art Thou? Lord, is it Thou My Lord and God Lord Jesus Christ? How said I that I sat alone And desolate and unsufficed? Surely a stone LORD, we are rivers running to Thy Would raise Thy praises now! sea, Our waves and ripples all derived from Thee: A nothing we should have, a nothing be, Except for Thee. Before 1893. O LORD, when Thou didst call me, didst Thou know My heart disheartened thro' and thro', Without a hiding-place To hide me from the terrors of Thy Face.- 'Thy hiding-place is here In Mine own heart, wherefore the Roman spear For thy sake I accounted dear.'My Jesus! King of Grace. . . Without a veil, to give Whiteness before Thy Face that I might live. 'Am I too poor to dress Thee in My royal robe of righteousness? Challenge and prove My Love's excess.' Give, Lord, I will receive. Without a pool wherein To wash my piteous self and make me clean. 'My Blood hath washed away Thy guilt, and still I wash thee day by day: Only take heed to trust and pray.' Lord, help me to begin. Before 1893. LORD JESUS, who would think that I am Thine ? Ah who would think, Who sees me ready to turn back or sink, That Thou art mine? I cannot hold Thee fast tho' Thou art mine: Hold Thou me fast, So earth shall know at last and heaven at last That I am Thine. Before 1886. I pitched so low, Thou so exceeding Nay, child, but wilt thou judge for high, What was it made Thee stoop to look at me While flawless sons of God stood wondering by? 'My love of thee.' What is there which can lift me up on high That we may dwell together, Thou with me, When sin and death and suffering are gone by? 'My love of thee.' O Lord, what is that best thing hid on high Which makes heaven heaven as Me? I crave not thine, but thee.' Ah Lord Who lovest me! Such as I have now give I Thee.' Before 1886. IF I should say my heart is in my home,' I turn away from that high halidom Where Jesus sits: for nowhere else But with its treasure dwells If I should say my heart is in a grave,' I turn away from Jesus risen to save: I slight that death He died for me ; I too deny to see His beauty and desirability. O Lord, Whose Heart is deeper than my heart, Draw mine to Thine to worship where Thou art; For Thine own glory join the twain Never to part again, Lord, why then am I weak?-Because I give Power to the weak, and bid the dying live. Lord, I am tired. He hath not much desired The goal who at the starting-point is tired. Nor to have lived nor to have Lord, dost Thou know? I know died in vain. Before 1886. LEAF from leaf Christ knows; Himself the Lily and the Rose: Sheep from sheep Christ tells; Himself the Shepherd, no one else: Star and star He names, Dove by dove, He calls To set each on the golden walls : Drop by drop, He counts Grain by grain, His hand Numbers the innumerable sand. Lord, I lift to Thee In peace what is and what shall be: Lord, in peace I trust To Thee all spirits and all dust. Before 1882. LORD, carry me.-Nay, but I grant thee strength To walk and work thy way to Heaven at length. what is in man; What the flesh can, and what the spirit can.—— Lord, dost Thou care?-Yea, for thy gain or loss So much I cared, it brought Me to the Cross. Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief. Good is the word; but rise, for life is brief. The follower is not greater than the Chief: Follow thou Me along My way of grief. Before 1893. LORD, I am here.-But, child, I look for thee Elsewhere and nearer Me.Lord, that way moans a wide insatiate sea: How can I come to Thee?Set foot upon the water, test and see If thou canst come to Me.Couldst Thou not send a boat to carry me, Or dolphin swimming free? |