01/10/2023
THE CROSS
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“But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross” (Gal. 6. 14).
The cross! how blessed is the sight,
To those who feel their guilt like me!
It shines with heaven’s peculiar light;
No object half so bright I see:
And yet, how little do I know
Of what the cross is meant to show!
The spring of life I know is there;
The stream of blood that issues thence,
Has power, I know, and virtue rare;
It can the foulest conscience cleanse.
The sense of guilt it can remove,
And fill the soul with holy love.
That justice there, and mercy can, And do together meet, I know:
I wonder at the gracious plan;
I gaze, and love to have it so.
Less terror, ’twould not awful be;
Less grace, it would not do for me.
Whatever I can want, it yields;
A sense of pardon thence I have:
My soul from Satan’s power it shields;
‘Tis God’s appointed way to save:
To save in every trying hour;
To save from every hostile power.
Then teach me, Lord, to comprehend
The meaning of that wondrous sight:
Its source, its object, and its end.
O shed upon Thy work a light,
A light from heaven, that I may know
Whatever may be known below.
To some, I know, this grace is given,
To search the mystery of love:
That love that higher is than heaven,
And deeper than the abyss below:
Like them, O Lord, I fain would be;
Like them would search, like them would see.
Then do Thou clear my inward sight,
From clouds and mists that darkness cause;
And fill my soul with holy light,
That I may know the love that was,
That is, and cannot cease to be:
The love that reached and vanquished me.
Thomas Kelly (1769-1854)