Poems (Procter)/A Desire

by Adelaide Anne Procter

A DESIRE.

TO have dwelt in Bethlehem When the star of the Lord shone bright!To have sheltered the holy wanderers On that blessèd Christmas night;To have kissed the tender wayworn feet Of the Mother undefiled,And, with reverent wonder and deep delight, To have tended the Holy Child!

Hush! such a glory was not for thee; But that care may still be thine;For are there not little ones still to aid For the sake of the Child divine?Are there no wandering Pilgrims now, To thy heart and thy home to take?And are there no mothers whose weary hearts You can comfort for Mary's sake?

O to have knelt at Jesus' feet, And to have learnt His heavenly lore!To have listened the gentle lessons He taught On mountain, and sea, and shore!While the rich and the mighty knew Him not, To have meekly done His will:—Hush! for the worldly reject Him yet, You can serve and love Him still.Time cannot silence His mighty words, And though ages have fled away,His gentle accents of love divine Speak to your soul to-day.

O to have solaced that weeping one Whom the righteous dared despise!To have tenderly bound up her scattered hair, And have dried her tearful eyes!Hush! there are broken hearts to soothe, And penitent tears to dry,While Magdalen prays for you and them, From her home in the starry sky.

O to have followed the mournful way Of those faithful few forlorn!And grace, beyond even an angel's hope, The Cross for our Lord have borne!To have shared in His tender mother's grief, To have wept at Mary's side,To have lived as a child in her home, and then In her loving care have died!

Hush! and with reverent sorrow still, Mary's great anguish share;And learn, for the sake of her Son divine, Thy cross, like His, to bear. The sorrows that weigh on thy soul unite With those which thy Lord has borne,And Mary will comfort thy dying hour, Nor leave thy soul forlorn,

O to have seen what we now adore, And, though veiled to faithless sight,To have known, in the form that Jesus wore, The Lord of Life and Light!Hush! for He dwells among us still, And a grace can yet be thine,Which the scoffer and doubter can never know,— The Presence of the Divine.Jesus is with His children yet, For His word can never deceive;Go where His lowly Altars rise, And worship, and believe.