Pearl of great price Thyself alone,
And ruddier than the ruby Thou; 10
Most precious lightning Jasper stone,
Head of the corner spurned before: 
Fair Gate of pearl, Thyself the Door;
Clear golden Street, Thyself the Way;
By Thee we journey toward Thee now,
Through Thee shall enter Heaven one day.

I thirst for Thee, full fount and flood;
My heart calls Thine, as deep to deep: 
Dost Thou forget Thy sweat and pain,
They provocation on the Cross? 20
Heart-pierced for me, vouchsafe to keep
The purchase of Thy lavished Blood: 
The gain is Thine, Lord, if I gain;
Or if I lose, Thine own the loss.

At midnight (saith the Parable)
A cry was made, the Bridegroom came;
Those who were ready entered in: 
The rest, shut out in death and shame,
Strove all too late that Feast to win,
Their die was cast, and fixed their lot; 30
A gulf divided Heaven from Hell;
The Bridegroom said—­I know you not.

But Who is this that shuts the door,
And saith—­I know you not—­to them? 
I see the wounded hands and side,
The brow thorn-tortured long ago: 
Yea; This Who grieved and bled and died,
This same is He Who must condemn;
He called, but they refused to know;
So now He hears their cry no more. 40

‘BEFORE THE PALING OF THE STARS’

(Lyra Messianica, 1864.)

Before the paling of the stars,
  Before the winter morn,
Before the earliest cockcrow
  Jesus Christ was born: 
Born in a stable,
  Cradled in a manger,
In the world His hands had made
  Born a stranger.

Priest and king lay fast asleep
  In Jerusalem, 10
Young and old lay fast asleep
  In crowded Bethlehem: 
Saint and Angel, ox and ass,
  Kept a watch together,
Before the Christmas daybreak
  In the winter weather.

Jesus on His Mother’s breast
  In the stable cold,
Spotless Lamb of God was He,
  Shepherd of the fold:  20
Let us kneel with Mary maid,
  With Joseph bent and hoary,
With Saint and Angel, ox and ass,
  To hail the King of Glory.

EASTER EVEN

(Lyra Messianica, 1864.)

There is nothing more that they can do
  For all their rage and boast;
Caiaphas with his blaspheming crew,
  Herod with his host,

Pontius Pilate in his Judgement-hall
  Judging their Judge and his,
Or he who led them all and passed them all,
  Arch-Judas with his kiss.

The sepulchre made sure with ponderous Stone,
  Seal that same stone, O Priest; 10
It may be thou shalt block the holy One
  From rising in the east: