"And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after JESUS." 66 WELL may I brook the lash of scorn or woe On mine own head to fall : An evil mark is on me: well I know I have deserved it all. But these my tender sheep, What have they sown, such ill to reap? Why should a new-born babe the watch of sorrow keep ?" The Cross laid on Infants. Stay thee, sad heart, or ere thou breathe thy plaint, And mark Who climbs the hill, so meek, so faint, On the rough way drop blood; How rushing round Him like a flood, 131 They drag Him, fallen beneath the accursed and galling wood. Nor Him alone. They seize upon his way, One hastening Zion-ward, and on him lay Part of the pain and scorn, Part of the Cross: who knows Which in his secret heart he chose, The persecutors' peace, or the meek Saviour's woes ? Bowed he with grudging mind the yoke to bear, Or was the bitter sweet For JESUS' sake? Lo, in the silent air On unseen pinions fleet The hosts of scorn and love : With the sad train they onward move :— Owns he the raven's wing, or the soft gliding Dove? O surely, when the healing Rood he felt, The sacrificial fire Of Love redeeming did his spirit melt, And with true heart's desire He set where JESUS trode His steps along the mountain road, Still learning more and more of His sweet awful load. Thou leanest o'er thine infant's couch of pain : It breaks thine heart, to see The wan glazed eye, the wasted arm, that fain Yet is there quiet rest Prepared upon the Saviour's breast For babes unconscious borne on Calvary to be blest. Nor to the darlings of thine aching heart, Nor to thine own weak soul, Grudge thou the good Cyrenian's patient part, The Cross that maketh whole Met unawares, and laid Upon the unresisting head, The tottering feet upon the way of sorrow led. The Cross laid on Infants. What if at times the playful hand, though weak, From the safe bosom part The nursing Father's awful crown to seek, With grieved and wondering call? Who but would joy, one drop should fall 133 Out of his own dull veins, for Him who spared us all ? 2. TEARS RESTRAINED. "Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire of thine head upon thee, and put on thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover not thy lips, and eat not the bread of men." "TEARS are of Nature's best, they say; An April dry makes cheerless May: Eyes that with answering glow Meet eager joy, I love not well That they should gaze immoveable On sights of fear and woe." "Nay, soft and wavering shows the heart And harsher by and by Will prove, I ween, the withering hour That hurries down our sky." |