| W. Garrett Horder, comp. The Poets’ Bible: New Testament. 1895. | | | | “He shall bring all Things to your Remembrance” | | Edward Hayes Plumptre (1821–1891) |
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THE YEARS behind them lay, | |
| Far out of sight; | |
| Each gracious word by day, | |
| Each prayer by night; | |
| But dim, and weak, and faint their memory proved, | 5 |
| They scarce could tell the words and acts of Him they loved. | |
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| Words full of grace and power | |
| For Angel’s thought, | |
| The lonely midnight hour | |
| The sense o’erwrought,— | 10 |
| These shone far off in dim and hazy gleam, | |
| As when one wakes from sleep and finds ’tis but a dream. | |
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| So when man’s subtle skill | |
| Paints some loved face, | |
| Bids sunbeams work his will | 15 |
| On scenes of grace, | |
| Too soon the light-born picture fades away, | |
| That living face and form, that landscape may not stay. | |
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| What spell shall then avail | |
| To stay its flight, | 20 |
| To fix it ere it fail | |
| All out of sight; | |
| What flash from heaven, or quick, electric thrill | |
| Can once again the dull cold grey with life refill? | |
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| For them the spell was found, | 25 |
| The hour arrived; | |
| Hope was with memory crowned, | |
| Old scenes revived; | |
| All He had said or done on shore or sea, | |
| In crowded Temple courts, or wilds of Galilee. | 30 |
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| Bethsaida’s grassy height, | |
| The noon-tide heat, | |
| White waves in stormy night, | |
| The still retreat, | |
| The morning mist, the fire upon the beach, | 35 |
| The eager, naked plunge that Presence loved to reach. | |
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| So every look and glance | |
| Rose clear to view, | |
| Strong prayer’s ecstatic trance, | |
| Seen but by few, | 40 |
| Wonder and anger, pity, love, and joy, | |
| Stern frown for feigning Scribe, and smiles for fisher’s boy. | |
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| Strange sayings, dark and deep, | |
| Were now made clear; | |
| High wisdom they could keep, | 45 |
| Once hard to bear; | |
| New meanings flashed upon the inward eye, | |
| And brought the buried past once more to fancy nigh. | |
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| Ah, Lord, we too forget | |
| What once we knew; | 50 |
| But He is with us yet, | |
| That Spirit true; | |
| He will old thoughts, hope, fear, and love revive, | |
| And keep Faith’s brightest dreams in heart and soul alive. | |
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| He will make all things clear, | 55 |
| That Lord of Truth, | |
| In withered age and sear, | |
| Renew our youth; | |
| We with cleans’d eyes through shadows see the Form, | |
| And hear the well-known Voice through mutterings of the storm. | 60 | | | |
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