THE BRIDE

The Father purposed there should be a bride

As counterpart for His beloved Son.

Soon Christ will have the assembly by His side

As fruit of what God’s counsels had begun.

The Spirit came and works to bring the bride

Into the presence of the heavenly Man;

He decks with treasures God loved to provide

To suit her now according to God’s plan.

The cost was Christ’s - for her He gave His life

Because He knew the joy that lay before;

Faithfully now she acts as comely wife

And waits to be beside Him evermore.

ORDER

Unarranged, the sensations

Suck by my senses to

My "faulty sensory perception".

Within, further confusion,

The sense of humour

Disarranging.

From the core

The sense of sny

Deranged.

O wretched man that I am!

Who shall deliver me

From this body of death?

If what I need is a Deliverer

What I gain also

Is a Master.

If what I need is an Escape

What I gain

Is also a Lord.

If what I need is a Resource

What I have

Is a Head also.

INFLUENCE

A pebble dropped into a pool
disturbs the water in a circle
widening without definite boundary.
Motion displaces air, 
nor can we assign any limit 
to the extent of such displacement.
Earth revolving within space 
carries along with itself 
its own vast atmosphere.
 
And more or less like each of these, 
personal influence is certain
and is incalculable; 
is a mighty engine inseparable from 
a proportionate burden 
of responsibility. 

None are too great, none too small, 
for this burden. 

St. Paul laid himself out, 
moulded himself, 
spent himself 
to bear it worthily; 
as his own words attest.

"Though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; to them that are without law, as without law (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ), that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some."
(CGR and DCB)

If I call this a poem of mine - it's a plagiarism: see here!   It is a poem?  Was it before I started?  Does it give a hint of what a modern Christina Rossetti would have been like?

ONE STEP MORE

One step more, and the race is ended,
   One word more, and the lesson's done,
One toil more, and a long rest follows
   At set of sun.

Who would fail, for one step withholden?
   Who would fail, for one word unsaid?
Who would fail, for a pause too early?
   Sound sleep the dead.

One step more, and the goal receives us,
   One word more, and life's task is done,
One toil more, and the Cross is carried
   And sets the sun. 

By Christina Rossetti 
Try A Reading Diary

EFFECTS

The Saviour took the sinner’s place;

And the effect, unmingled grace

Now freely flowing forth.

God shared with Him the greatest height:

And the effect, the Spirit’s might

Now freely flowing forth.

Christ sent the Spirit from above;

And the effect, in hearts, God’s love

Now freely flowing forth.

God sees the end of all His ways;

And the effect, eternal praise

Now freely flowing forth.

DONALD

I will not call for

Pibroch or coronach

This time. This was not

A work part done. The model

Was working and complete -

The testimony of Jesus was testified

To an end. The talents had been

Fully traded. The Master’s

Final touches had touched. “And all

The Trumpets sounded for him on

The other side.”

This was written after the death of Donald, a brother in the Lord, about a year after the death of Scotland's First Minister, Donald Dewar.  This was a reaction to the real gold of the brother.  The quotation is from the second part of The Pilgrim's Progress.

IN JESUS

All that we have, we have in Jesus:

Our access is through Him alone.

He bore ours sins and condemnation,

But now He’s on the Father’s throne.

A PAIR OF ASSES

For Rosie

Appropriately

We can see ourselves as

A pair of asses

- For each, like an ass, has been

Redeemed

By a perfect Lamb.

A pair -

Not ploughing with

An ox and an ass together.

And like Balaam's

Ready to speak well -

If by a miracle!

Alert for the time

When, specially,

The Lord has need of us;

But bearing, daily,

As we find grace,

Abigail to her Husband.

CLOTHING

Marred by rebellion, which God loathed,

And cast out by their sin

Adam and Eve still go out clothed

By God in coats of skin.

So though we all display sin’s taint

By habit and by birth

We may go forth without restraint

Clothed in the Saviour’s worth.

The younger son was steeped in wrongs

God could not but detest -

The Father shows where he belongs

And clothes him in His best.

And thus repentant sinners find,

Though consciously undone,

God’s every act towards them is kind -

He clothes them in His Son.

Though merely human goodness drags

The priest’s clothes in the mire

God substitutes for filthy rags

His festival attire -

Outwith the range of Satan’s barb

We stand before God’s face

In pure and splendid priestly garb

Made suitable through grace.

The elders sit around the throne

Each clothed in robes of white,

Secured by God to be His own

And dwell with Him in light:

All thought of variation past

Through Christ they are complete;

They bow before the throne and cast

Their crowns before His feet.

TRUE

Their lighting constrained
To the sparks they had kindled
Men lay in sorrow: when
Christ came they preferred
The flickerings of their caves.
Yet we can know in its brightness
The pure illumination
Of the True Light.

A faithful Creator provided
Food for the journey -
They ate, and lived, and died.
But now the father gives
As a spiritual reality
For lasting life, lasting subsistence,
And lasting satisfaction,
The True Bread.

Once on a fruitful hill,
Dug and relieved of stones
Was planted that unsatisfactory vine,
Israel, bearer of wild grapes.
Now He stand, to God's satisfaction,
Without earthly moisture,
Clusters ripening to grapes,
Christ, the True Vine.

Blind, and unaware
Of poverty and nakedness
How could Laodicea give
Testimony?  The source of eye salve,
Of gold and garments speaks:
What word the Amen asserts!
What can he not introduce
The Faithful and True Witness.

What dignity he has
The reality of every type,
The One who supersedes every
Shadow.  Who has the right
To the key of David? - who
Maintain everything for God
But the One who can call Himself
The Holy, the True?

GO FORTH TO HIM

Out of a camp which He has left,
Where man’s religiousness is deft,
Which does not feel itself bereft,
Go forth to Him.

Into an empty wilderness

Where Satan’s powers cannot oppress

The refugees God loves to bless

Go forth to Him.

Knowing the glory of the grace

Which caused the Saviour to abase

Himself to take the sinner’s place

Go forth to Him.

Not only knowing His strong arm

To save from hazard and alarm,

Enamoured by His worth and charm

Go forth to Him.

Gathered with those who own His claim

And thus are faithful to his name,

Despising the reproach and shame

Go forth to Him.

LORD, WE CANNOT GO AWAY

Lord, we cannot go away -

Thou hast words of life eternal;

Powers both earthly and infernal

Cannot lure us - we will stay.

In each word that Thou dost say

Love is at the very kernel:

Lord, we cannot go away -

Thou hast words of life eternal;

Love that guards us from dismay;

Love from God which is paternal;

Love of saints which is fraternal;

Love which bears us all the way:

Lord, we cannot go away.

CHAINS

I loved my father's story

Of the skilled locksmith

Who, enchained, looked at each link

And declared:

"I cannot escape from these  

I made them myself",

But not the interpretation,

Apt though it was,

That the links were habits,

Binding irretrievably.

Lord, teach me the skill

To forge for myself chains,

That I may inescapably be made

A prisoner of Jesus Christ,

A willing bondman.

For it was love which bonded

Christ to the servant's path, linked

Christ to the cross, held

Christ in the grave.

BORNE

My

Guilt was borne by Jesus.

My guilt

Was borne by Jesus.

My guilt was borne

By Jesus

My guilt was borne by

Jesus

TRIUMPH

Oh families of Seth

Forsake weak, mortal man;

Forsake the shades of night;

Come to the greatest light

Since sin's career began -

The Lord is out of death!

He suffered to atone

And bore the weight of sin;

He entered into death

And yielded up His breath.

He rose; He entered in -

The Lord is on the throne!

Though patriarchs remain

Within the graves of Heth

Christ watches every place

Which He will breach through grace:

The One who conquered death -

The Lord - will come again.

THE

The words banner forth

Boldly expressive:

The Lord, the Christ, the Son of God,

The Son of Man, the Shepherd.

Substitute "a" for "the" -

And the fabric is grounded,

Like a banner

With no flagpole.

Alone the word "the" is gaunt

As an unused staff.

O Lord, help me to be

A definite article!

CHOICES

One Person did the Father’s will

And answered to His voice;

Lord Jesus, how our beings thrill

To Thee, the Father’s choice.

But now we know that we are those

Who, ere the world began,

The Father, for His pleasure, chose

For favour in that Man.

So let us choose the Father’s way

In hearkening to the Son

That Christ may give us, in His day,

The accolade “Well done”.

ORBITS

I am no wandering star

Headlong moving with levity

To destruction.

But I can move in a vast

Elliptical orbit - glowing when near the Sun, cold

When a distant comet

At the fringe of attraction.

Help me, my Sun,

To be a planet ideally

Circling, heat, light and attraction

At their optimum - where grace

Has placed me.

MEPHIBOSHETH

Marred; weak; afar; with the opprobrium

Of the rejected race... to catalogue

My blemishes would take too long; in sum

Encompass all in three words - “a dead dog”.

Mercy has reached me; grace has brought me near;

Kindness has given me a prince’s seat

And riches; perfect love has cast out fear:

The King Himself has made my bliss complete.

So if He is rejected in this world,

And the rebellious challenge has been hurled:

“We will not have this Man to reign”, should I

Follow that trend? Surely I must deny

Myself, and, till my Sovereign comes again,

Live in the consciousness that “He must reign”.

PLANTS

From the gnarled bush

Only another thorn: “Away with

This man!”

One quickly-fading leaf

From a dry tree: “I find no fault

In this man.”

But, in the rocks, a miracle -

One perfect bloom: “Have nothing to do with

That righteous man”.

Or from a dying thorn-tree

One tender flower: “This man

Has done nothing amiss.”

A stark tree puts out

One bud - “This man

Was just!”.

It blossoms:

“Truly this man

Was Son of God”.

A plethora of colour

Burgeons - “God has made this Jesus

Both Lord and Christ”.

PETER

Adjusted by Christ’s might in the creation,

Beside the feet of Jesus Peter knelt

Acknowledging the sinfulness he felt.

Adjusted by the Father’s revelation

He found the humble Carpenter who trod

Beside him was the Christ, the Son of God.

Adjusted by severeness of rebuke

He learned that Christ was ready to fulfil,

Cost what it would, the details of God’s will.

Adjusted by the glory of the Father

He heard that no man’s glory might be linked

With Christ since the Beloved is distinct.

Adjusted by the Master’s loving look

Appreciation of his vileness swept

Across his being, and he turned and wept.

Adjusted by the Shepherd’s yen to gather

He came with those whom Jesus folded in

To form a circle Christ could come within.

GARMENT

Day by day His actions

Wove one seamless garment -

You could not unpick

One shade from another.

Perhaps you could distinguish

Colours of grace, shades of love,

Textures of righteousness - yet never

Unseam mercy from judgment.

But who was weaving?

Each movement in manhood

Consonant with who He is

Was under the Father’s direction -

Woven from the top.

SCOTT’S VIEW

Stopping each time he passed that way to trace

God’s workmanship in river, tree and hill

The poet frequently renewed the thrill

Which toil and worry struggled to efface.

The horses which had pulled and stopped his chaise

Finally pulled his hearse; and they were still

As subject to their absent master’s will

When they arrived at that familiar place.

I have a Master who is absent, too -

In everything that I may say or do

Do those who know He is my Master find

That I am subject to my Master’s mind?

I can be thrilled with Him and can derive

From Him who, though now absent, is alive.

This refers to the poet and novelist sir Walter Scott: the view is here.

 

ALL

God can seek nothing
in us, but He can give us all,
finding all in Christ.



You'll find these words here in the prose; they're a pick out which I noticed while reading, having the 5:7:5 formation of a haiku.  Not that I'd call it a haiku, and modern western writers claim the title for must looser formation.  But it seems to me that the cadences of the 5:7:5 form have a significant quiddity.

“SON OF THE HIGHEST”

“Son of the Highest,

He shall be called”:

Now in the glory

He is installed.

Soon from the glory

He will come out

Cheering the faithful,

Banishing doubt.

“Son of the Highest

He shall be called”:

Glories once granted,

Never recalled.

“He shall be Firstborn,

Highest of kings”,

Chief amongst brethren,

Head of all things.

“Son of the Highest

He shall be called”:

God is delighted;

Saints are enthralled.

HIS

Who did the love of God send

As the fulness of time?

His Son.

God's glad tidings are concerning

Our Lord, and

His Son.

That “Abba Father” may resound

God has sent out the Spirit of

His Son.

In His saints God wills to have

The effulgence of

His Son.

The One we await from heaven is

Our Deliverer, and

His Son.

For, who did He not spare?

His

Own Son.

GRACE

God chose, in Jesus, to descend

In grace we cannot comprehend

That grace should thus secure God’s end.

FATHER

When a perfect Child

Expressed committal to His Father’s business

How much God enjoyed

Being that Father!

As His bosom Son

Walked in the way of His will

How God rejoiced to be

His Father.

And what the Father’s delight

In being the Father whose glory

At the earliest instant

Raised Christ from the dead!

Now with that Son

Sharing His throne

The Father is enjoying

Being His Father.

Now as Christ’s men

Share His place

The Father is enjoying

Being their Father.

And what is His pleasure in saying

“I will be to you for a Father”

To those who follow

The strait path of His will.

MAN ACCORDING TO GOD

Here where men had displayed

Every feature of shame

Jesus came

And portrayed

Man according to God.

As Christ hung on the cross

That His own might be free

God could see

Mid such loss

Man according to God.

At the Father's right hand

Christ is glorified now;

As you bow

Understand

Man according to God.

Soon the world will behold

God and heaven's delight:

In their sight

Will unfold

Man according to God.

Saints through all Christ has done

Will be blessed and refined

He will find

In each one

Man according to God.

FACE

No face could be marred

As His because no face was

As perfect as His.

FANFARE FOR THE EARTH'S REDEMPTION!

O!                     

Wrest                     

A bold note from the trumpet  Christ at last                     

Returns; with jubilation sound a blast                     

Prest                     

O!                    

I                                                             

Am                                                             

Voicing all beasts' joy in their lot                                                             

Lorises, gnats, pangolins, hippopot                                                             

Am-                                                             

I!                                                             

A                                                                                         Grand                                                                                        

Rejoicing echoes, loud and resonant,                                                                                       

From antelope, flea, dolphin, elephant,                                                                                       

Pand                                                                                        

a!