"The healing graft and natural vine." Walter Chalmers Smith (1824-1908). W.G. Horder, comp. 1895. The Poets' Bible: New Testament

W. Garrett Horder, comp. The Poets’ Bible: New Testament. 1895.

“The healing graft and natural vine”

Walter Chalmers Smith (1824–1908)

‘Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that, Jesus also being baptized.’—LUKE III. 21.

THE HEALING graft and natural vine
Their separate lives in one combine,
Alike they grow, alike they share
The common sun, the common air,
The pruning knife, the falling rain:	5
For they are one, who yet are twain.

And Christ the Branch, the one True Vine,
To blend with ours the life divine,
Shared all our lot of pain and woe,
And peace and duty here below,	10
And was with us baptized for sin
That we the better life might win.

The heavens, then opening o’er Him bright,
For us unveiled their glorious light,
The Dove that rested on His head,	15
For us its gracious errand sped,
The voice that blessed the Holy One
Proclaimed our sonship in the Son.

Now we in Him are born again;
In Him our grief, in Him our pain,	20
In Him our sin itself shall die,
And death be Immortality,
Such glory unto us hath given
The Branch divine, the Lord from heaven.