TIME

In the consummation of the ages

There came - for One who was God -

A predicted, foreseen, time

To be born.

God’s Man, having shown perfectly

Man according to God, moved

Inexorably, and devotedly, to a time

To die.

The days of a desert life

Were, as He spread His grace

In oases of His love, a time

To plant.

Among the rebellious Jews,

Satisfied in themselves,

With sadness, He found it a time

To pluck up that which is planted.

While, when grace is rejected,

And repentance disdained,

He will institute a time

To kill.

Now in the day of grace

He, from the Father’s throne,

Presides with joy over a time

To heal.

When Paul advance on Damascus

Against the name of the Lord,

And His people, it was a time

To break down.

When Paul invaded Europe

In all the power of the Lord

And His Spirit, it was a time

To build up.

If at the Bethany tomb,

Surrounded by those he loved,

Death’s influence made it a time

To weep

Yet He now sees, joyfully,

A wife who works for His will

Who sees in the dawn a time

To laugh.

As He came to the holy city,

Amid the apparent triumph,

He alone knew it a time

To mourn,

While as He looks on His spouse,

In character like Himself,

He knows that it is a time

To dance.

And the rejecting city,

Stout against the government of God,

Came, in government , to a time

To cast away stones.

But among the faithful saints

The Lord’s hand worked in might

Initiating a time

To gather stones together.

Souls who turn to Him,

Repenting from their sins,

Are welcomed in a time

To embrace,

But those who reject God’s grace

And the value of Christ’s death

Bring on themselves a time

To refrain from embracing.

He, in His shepherd love,

Uses this dispensation,

In tenderness, as a time

To seek

While those who have known that love,

Seeing their selfish wills,

Learn to come to a time

To lose.

He, in His shepherd love,

Uses the days of storm and trial,

In faithfulness, as a time

To keep.

While those who have known His love,

Seeing in their flesh the works of darkness,

Learn that it is a time

To cast away.

Seeing the ascending Man,

His fresh, and our old, garments

This has become a time

To rend.

Having our treasures with Him

It is, since we need purses

Which do not grow old, a time

To sew.

Led as a lamb to the slaughter

The Lord, in wisdom and grace,

Showed when it was a time

To keep silent.

Risen, and come to His own,

Christ, as Revealer of secrets,

Came with joy to a time

To speak.

Seeing His faithful saints

Who keep His word and Name

He rejoices to tell of a time

To love

But as He views the deeds

Of those who despise His claim

Against these deeds is a time

To hate.

When He will come in power,

Conquering and to conquer,

Then it will be a time

Of war,

That He may establish in judgment,

In righteousness, and grace,

Forever and ever a time

Of peace.