The Blessed Name of Christ

"If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth on you. On their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified." — 1 Peter 4.14.

Whate'er our griefs in life, whate'er in death,
If doomed perchance to feel the martyr's flame,
Still, with our last and agonizing breath,
In joy will we repeat Christ's precious name:
Oh! there's a magic in that glorious word;
No other has such power; the mighty voice,
From senatorial lips and patriots heard,
Can ne'er like this enkindle, rouse, rejoice.
For Christ's dear name the saints, without a groan,
In times of old met death upon their knees;
For Christ's dear name the lonely Piedmontese
Down headlong o'er the crimson rocks were thrown.
That blessed name gives hope and strength and zeal,
That sets at nought alike the flood, the fire, the steel.

— The Religious Offering (1835) Scripture Sonnets IX.

God's Glory in His Saints

I thought, O God, Thyself to see,
When I should reach the heavenly clime;
Display'd in kingly majesty,
Upon a shining throne sublime.

But Thou didst say, Behold me now,
Cloth'd in a vesture like thine own;
Mine eye illumes man's sainted brow,
My love hath made his heart its throne.

In Christ the lesson first began;
I dwelt in Him, and He in me;
And now each new-born, Christ-like man,
Proclaims the same great mystery.

The holy man is God reveal'd;
In HIM God makes His glory known;
Behold it, with thine eye unseal'd;
BELIEVE! and make it all thine own.

— Christ in the Soul (1872) LXV.