A FUNERAL MARCH.
29
VI.
But now comes silent joy, anointing
With sudden, firm, and tender hand
Our eyes; anointed with this clay
Of burial earth, we see how stand
Around us, marshalled under God's appointing,
Such shining ones as on no other day
Descend. We see, with a majestic face,
Of love ineffable, One walking in chief place
Beside the dead,—High Priest
Of his salvation, King
Of his surrender, comrade till life ceased,
Saviour from suffering,—
O sweet, strong, loving Death!
With yearning, pitying breath,
He looks back from his dead to us, and saith,
"O mine who love me not, what filled
Your hearts with this strange fear?
Could ye but hear
The new voice of this man whom I have willed
To set so free, to make
Him subject in my kingdom, for the sake
Of being greater king than I,
Reigning with Christ eternally!"
With sudden, firm, and tender hand
Our eyes; anointed with this clay
Of burial earth, we see how stand
Around us, marshalled under God's appointing,
Such shining ones as on no other day
Descend. We see, with a majestic face,
Of love ineffable, One walking in chief place
Beside the dead,—High Priest
Of his salvation, King
Of his surrender, comrade till life ceased,
Saviour from suffering,—
O sweet, strong, loving Death!
With yearning, pitying breath,
He looks back from his dead to us, and saith,
"O mine who love me not, what filled
Your hearts with this strange fear?
Could ye but hear
The new voice of this man whom I have willed
To set so free, to make
Him subject in my kingdom, for the sake
Of being greater king than I,
Reigning with Christ eternally!"
VII.
Closer and closer press the shining ones;
Clearer and clearer grow the notes
Of music from the heavenly throats.
We see the gleaming of the precious stones
Clearer and clearer grow the notes
Of music from the heavenly throats.
We see the gleaming of the precious stones
