“SERVANT of God! well done; | |
| Rest from thy loved employ; | |
| The battle fought, the victory won, | |
| Enter thy Master’s joy.” | |
| —The voice at midnight came: | 5 |
| He started up to hear, | |
| A mortal arrow pierced his frame: | |
| He fell,—but felt no fear. | |
| |
| Tranquil amidst alarms, | |
| It found him in the field, | 10 |
| A veteran slumbering on his arms, | |
| Beneath his red-cross shield: | |
| His sword was in his hand, | |
| Still warm with recent fight; | |
| Ready that moment at command, | 15 |
| Through rock and steel to smite. | |
| |
| It was a two-edged blade, | |
| Of heavenly temper, keen; | |
| And double were the wounds it made, | |
| Where’er it glanced between: | 20 |
| ’Twas death to sin;—’twas life | |
| To all who mourn’d for sin; | |
| It kindled and it silenced strife, | |
| Made war and peace within. | |
| |
| Oft with its fiery force, | 25 |
| His arm had quell’d the foe, | |
| And laid, resistless in his course, | |
| The alien armies low. | |
| Bent on such glorious toils, | |
| The world to him was loss; | 30 |
| Yet all his trophies, all his spoils, | |
| He hung upon the Cross. | |
| |
| At midnight came the cry, | |
| “To meet thy God prepare!” | |
| He woke,—and caught his Captain’s eye; | 35 |
| Then, strong in faith and prayer, | |
| His spirit, with a bound, | |
| Burst its encumbering clay; | |
| His tent, at sun-rise, on the ground, | |
| A darken’d ruin lay. | 40 |
| |
| The pains of death are past, | |
| Labour and sorrow cease, | |
| And life’s long warfare closed at last, | |
| His soul is found in peace. | |
| Soldier of Christ! well done; | 45 |
| Praise be thy new employ; | |
| And while eternal ages run, | |
| Rest in thy Saviour’s joy. | |
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