* * * * *
THE RENT VEIL.
By Henry B. Carrington.
“And the veil of the temple was rent in twain.”
I.
The Great I AM,—that Presence,
Infinite,
Which wrought creation by the breath
Of Sovereign Will,—and in His
Image bright,
Brought man to life, to dwell in Paradise,—
Took gracious pity on his lost estate,
When sin had marred that perfect image,
And Earth could pay no ransom for the
soul.
II.
Jehovah,—God, effulgence bright,—august,—
In majesty supreme, from Heaven stooped
down,
And through His wondrous love, ineffable,
Enshrined Himself within that sacred place,
Which, once in each revolving year,
The type of the Redeemer, promised,
Might dare approach, with awe, with offerings
For the sins of Israel’s children.
III.
As but a day, four thousand years, when
told,
With Him, who was, and is to be,—
Eternal—Three in One,—Omnipotent:—
Such was the span of ripening promise,
Until the hour matured, and Saving Grace,
The full Redemption offered,—by
gift
Of Spotless purity,—His Only
Son.
IV.
Within the “Holy Place,” the
High Priest bowed,
While dread Shekinah lingered,—(ne’er
again
To yield to Jewish rite or sacrifice,
The boon of pardoned guilt, for blood
of goats
Or bullocks, without blemish);—and
bowed,
While yet the echoes of his voice, profane,
Still quivered in the midnight air,—floating
Upward toward the Great White Throne,—crying,
O,—crucify the spotless Son
of Man,
And let Barabbas, son of sin, go free.
V.
Where direst portents, solitude profound,—
Place, awful with the bleaching types
of death,
Had published forth Golgotha’s cruel
name.
The stately High Priest, from the “Holy
Place”
Approached, to consummate prophetic crime,—
To fill the measure of Judea’s sin,—
And bring Messiah to a dying race.
VI.
“IT IS FINISHED.”
VII.
O,—light of day, whose now
averted face,
As ne’er before, withholds thy cheer
from man!—
O,—quaking earth, whose bed
of solid rock,
Is shivered by some pang of awful ill!—
O,—graves, once sealed o’er
loved ones, laid aside,
To answer only at Archangels’ call!—
What tragedy of creation’s Master;—
What spell upon creation’s normal
peace;—
What overturn of laws immutable;—
What contradictions in the mind Supreme;
Have wrought this pregnant ruin,—earth
throughout!
VIII.