“With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer: for I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” —Luke 22:15, 16.
Lord! ‘twas thy heart’s desire,
Thine Israel’s feast to share,
Ere thou wouldst suffer and expire,
The nation’s guilt to bear.
Nor Israel’s crime alone
The mercy-tide must meet;
Thou didst for Gentile sins atone,
God’s counsels to complete.
Thus, to the faithful few
Reposing in thy name,
(Ah, to one dark intruder too,)
Didst thou thy death proclaim,
Beside the Paschal Lamb,
That night in shadow slain,
The antitype, the great I AM,
Foretells his righteous reign.
There badest thou farewell
To every link with earth;
There sounded nature’s funeral knell,
Ere thy new era’s birth.
Rejected of thine own,
O’er whom thy heart doth yearn,
Thou to thy holy Father’s throne
Dost in his time return.
No more may earth detain
The true Unleavened Bread,—
Her bitter herbs tell out his pain,
Who liveth and was dead.
No more thine ancient vine
Hath fruit, O Christ, for thee,
Until the kingdom, doubly thine,
Declared in power shall be.
Yet do thy words remain
In every widowed heart;
Thou Jesus, who wilt come again,
Our life in glory art.
Our Passover art thou!
We love to keep the feast,
Thy joy, thy peace, our portion now,
Though lowest we, and least.
Thine own exceeding grace
Rose all opposings o’er;
Thy blissful presence is the place
Where now our cup runs o’er.
Wrath’s awful cup was thine,
God gave it thee to drink:
Nor could thy filial love divine
Beneath his provings shrink.
“Before I suffer,” so
Thou spakest to thine own;
Ah! what our hearts can never know
Didst thou endure alone!
Thine offering to God
No finite mind can scan;
And yet thy name declares abroad.
Thy love to God and man.
Thy broken body, Lord,
Thou givest us to eat;
Thine own thanksgivings we have heard,
With thine, our musings meet.
The cup, —thy blood outpoured,
Thou bidd’st us all to take;
Forever be thy name adored,
All thirst therein we slake.
Thou reignest in our midst,
We live to reign with thee;
And, you celestial hosts amidst,
Thou still our ALL shalt be.
Thy covenant made new,
Established in thy blood,
Shall save thine earthly people, too,
And bring them back to God.
The heavens thou shalt hear,
And they shall hear the earth;
The seed of God, with holy fear
Shall feast in holy mirth.
Then, then shall earth rejoice,
With corn and oil and wine;
And subject wholly to thy voice,
Proclaim the glory thine.
Jan. 13th 1868.