Page:Redemption, a Poem.djvu/130

 124 REDEMPTION.

They enter, and behold the heav'nly Babe, Cradled on straw and in a manger laid. Prostrate before him bow the patriarch sire, And Mary, who the infant Saviour bore. Rapt in ecstatic joy before her Son, Th' untainted Virgin kneeling him address'd:

" By what fit name shall I thee call, Son ? A man's name shall I give thee ? but thou art Divine. God's name shall I bestow? but thou Hast taken human flesh. Shall I with milk Thee nourish, or thee glorify as God ? Shall I, or as thy Mother, cherish thee, Or as thy handmaid, thee adore? What is This mystery, unutterable, profound? Heav'n is thy seat, yet now my womb thee bears; Here with the dwellers of the earth thou deign'st To live, and yet the highest heav'ns dost fill; Whose coming here is not through change of place, By condescension humbled to our state. This mystery divine, I may not search, But humbly bow thy goodness to adore. Thou art in me th' exhaustless source of good, With lib'ral hand who hast adorn'd my soul, Enrich'd with graces, on me copious pour'd; And when thou had'st no greater gift to yield, (Unheard of wonder, earth and heav'n's amaze !) Did'st visit me, did'st give me thine own self, And constitute me Mother of my Lord! Naught can'st thou now, my saving Son, refuse, Who hast united thus thyself to me, Flesh of my flesh, my life with thine infused, Thy be'ing, insep'rable to mine conjoin'd.

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