Page:Hemans in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine 32 1832.pdf/13



(She sings.) He knelt, the Saviour knelt and pray'd,    When but his Father's eye Look'd through the lonely garden's shade On that dread agony; The Lord of All above, beneath, Was bow'd with sorrow unto death!

The sun set in a fearful hour, The stars might well grow dim, When this mortality had power So to o'ershadow Him! That He who gave man's breath, might know The very depths of human woe.

He proved them all! the doubt, the strife, The faint perplexing dread, The mists that hang o'er parting life, All gather'd round his head; And the Deliverer knelt to pray— Yet pass'd it not, that cup, away!

It pass'd not—though the stormy wave Had sunk beneath His tread; It pass'd not—though to Him the grave Had yielded up its dead. But there was sent Him from on high, A gift of strength for man to die.

And was the Sinless thus beset With anguish and dismay? How may we meet our conflict yet, In the dark narrow way? Through Him—through Him, that path who trode— Save, or we perish, Son of God!

Hark, hark! the parting signal. [Prison attendants enter Fare-thee-well! O, thou unutterably loved, farewell! Let our hearts bow to God! One last embrace— On earth the last!—We have eternity For love's communion yet!—Farewell—farewell!— [She is led out. 'Tis o'er—the bitterness of death is past!