126 THE LOVE OF CHRIST. I bore thee on My shoulders and rejoiced : Men only marked upon My shoulders borne The branding cross; and shouted hungry-voiced, Or wagged their heads in scorn. Thee did nails grave upon My hands, thy name eyes: I, Holy One, put on thy guilt and shame; I, God, Priest, Sacrifice. A thief upon My right hand and My left; At length in death one smote My heart, and cleft Nailed to the racking cross, than bed of down A harvest,-come and reap. MISS ROSSETTI. T BRANCHES." HOU art the living Vine, the branches we; One of those branches! for I ever pine So to be Thine As is the branch unto the living vine. I long to lose my life in Thine,-to say "I live;" yet straight thereafter quickly add, "Not I, the sad, But Jesus lives in me, and makes me glad." I envy Paul what time he softly said Of the once Dead, 128 I AM THE VINE, "We bear about His dying marks: His life Throughout earth's strife Is manifested in us, full and rife." Oh, thus to have Thy life in mine out-shown, Thy very own, That men may only say of me, "This is His strength; and this His wisdom; and this joy again His bliss; "This sympathy is His; He ever lives, Day after day, the hidden life which we From His own boundless, glorious treasury. "This comfort from His fount of comfort flows, 'Tis He bestows This peace, so very calm and shadowless; Enfoldeth as a snow-white, shining dress." O Saviour, make me one with Thee! I bear YE ARE THE BRANCHES.” And bring it to Thee thus: In that dark night Of sorrow's might, Didst Thou not ask me for this deep delight? 129 Grant, therefore, this blest oneness; let me feel, As now I kneel, I have no life whereof to say, 'tis mine, But only Thine, I but the branch, and Thou the living Vine! K MARY LESLIE. |