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OUR FATHER’S BUSINESS:
HOLMAN HUNT’S PICTURE OF “CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE.”
- O CHRIST‐CHILD, Everlasting, Holy One,
- Sufferer of all the sorrow of this world,
- Redeemer of the sin of all this world,
- Who by Thy death brought’st life into this world,—
- O Christ, hear us!
- This, this is Thou. No idle painter’s dream
- Of aureoled, imaginary Christ,
- Laden with attributes that make not God;
- But Jesus, son of Mary; lowly, wise,
- Obedient, subject unto parents, mild,
- Meek—as the meek that shall inherit earth,
- Pure—as the pure in heart that shall see God.
- O infinitely human, yet divine!
- Half clinging childlike to the mother found,
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- Yet half repelling—as the soft eyes say,
- “How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not
- That I must be about my Father’s business?”
- As in the Temple’s splendors mystical,
- Earth’s wisdom hearkening to the all‐wise One,
- Earth’s closest love clasping the all‐loving One,
- He sees far off the vision of the cross,
- The Christ‐like glory and the Christ‐like doom.
- Messiah! Elder Brother, Priest and King,
- The Son of God, and yet the woman’s seed;
- Enterer within the veil; Victor of death,
- And made to us first fruits of them that sleep;
- Saviour and Intercessor, Judge and Lord,—
- All that we know of Thee, or knowing not
- Love only, waiting till the perfect time
- When we shall know even as we are known—
- O Thou Child Jesus, Thou dost seem to say
- By the soft silence of these heavenly eyes
- (That rose out of the depths of nothingness
- Upon this limner’s reverent soul and hand)
- We too should be about our father’s business—
- O Christ, hear us!
- Have mercy on us, Jesus Christ, our Lord!
- The cross Thou borest still is hard to bear;
- And awful even to humblest follower
- The little that Thou givest each to do
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- Of this Thy Father’s business; whether it be
- Temptation by the devil of the flesh,
- Or long‐linked years of lingering toil obscure,
- Uncomforted, save by the solemn rests
- On mountain‐tops of solitary prayer;
- Oft ending in the supreme sacrifice,
- The putting off all garments of delight,
- And taking sorrow’s kingly crown of thorn,
- In crucifixion of all self to Thee,
- Who offeredst up Thyself for all the world.
- O Christ, hear us!
- Our Father’s business:—unto us, as Thee,
- The whole which this earth‐life, this hand‐breadth span
- Out of our everlasting life that lies
- Hidden with Thee in God, can ask or need.
- Outweighing all that heap of petty woes—
- To us a measure huge—which angels blow
- Out of the balance of our total lot,
- As zephyrs blow the winged dust away.
- O Thou who wert the Child of Nazareth,
- Make us see only this, and only Thee,
- Who camest but to do thy Father’s will,
- And didst delight to do it. Take Thou then
- Our bitterness of loss,—aspirings vain,
- And anguishes of unfulfilled desire,
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- Our joys imperfect, our sublimed despairs,
- Our hopes, our dreams, our wills, our loves, our all,
- And cast them into the great crucible
- In which the whole earth, slowly purified,
- Runs molten, and shall run—the Will of God.
- O Christ, hear us!
