Christ's Agony in the Garden

Christ's Agony in the Garden

He knelt - the Saviour knelt and prayed,

When but his Father's eye

Looked through the lonely garden's shade,

On that dread agony!

The Lord of all, above, beneath,
Was bowed with sorrow unto death.

The sun set in a fearful hour,

The skies might well grow dim

When this mortality had power

So to o'ershadow Him!

When He who gave man's breath might know
The very depth of human wo.

He knew them all - the doubt, the strife,

The faint, perplexing dread,

The mists that hang o'er parting life,

All darkened round his head!

And the Deliverer knelt to pray -
Yet passed 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 His mortal hour beset

With anguish and dismay? -

How may we meet our conflict yet,

In the dark, narrow way?

How, but through Him, that path who trod?
Save, or we perish, Son of God?

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* "And there appeared an angel unto him from Heaven, strengthening him." - Luke xxii: 43.

Mrs. Hemans (Felicia Dorothea Hemans)

New Series 1:21, p. 4

1840.07.25