THE GLORY OF CHRIST IN THE NEW CREATION

JOSEPH JOHN GURNEY

Clad with no verdure, by no waters fed,
Behold on every side a desert spread!
No fruit, no food for man, the sands produce,
Nor plant is there but of a poisonous juice,
Or armed with thorns; beneath each stunted brake, 
Or fatal scorpion, or envenomed snake, 
Unheeded lurks; all life is deadly there, 
And the wild waste is pregnant with despair.
   Woe to the traveler who dares essay
To happier climes that drear and trackless way;
His courage lost, exhausted all his stores
The farthest east or west his eye explores,
Unknown, impassable, the plains extend,
Hope withers, whersoe'er his footsteps bend;
When suddenly, beneath the lurid beam,
Far, far ahead, the welcome waters gleam;
For so he weens; intent his thirst to slake,
And bathe with rapture in the lovely lake,
He presses onward with unnatural strength,
And paces swift the desert's weary length;
But flits the soft deception from his view;
The burning, barren, sands alone are true;
Struck to the heart, he breathes a hopeless sigh,
Then nerveless sinks, to suffer and to die.
   Such change the curse had wrought; but who shall scan
That deadlier wilderness, the heart of man ?
Barren of all that's good--of strife and sin
Productive always, spreads the waste within.
There Satan lurks in various guise conceal'd, 
The soul his victim, and the world his field; 
Instils his poisons with consummate skill, 
Perverts the judgment and depraves the will, 
Inspires disease with dank, pestiferous, breath, 
Distorts the passions, then consigns to death. 
His was the suasion, his the murderous lie, 
'Partake the fruit--thou shalt not surely die.' 
The dark deceit assumed fair reason's show, 
Presage to millions of eternal woe.
Hence too our evils here; the hope forlorn
That sinks into despair; the festering thorn 
That rankles in the breast; the bitter tear
Of helpless poverty, and pallid fear
Of death to come, and pain that mocks control, 
Anguish of body, agony of soul,
And brother's hand imbrued in kindred blood, 
And scowling want, and war's ensanguined flood, 
Sickness and plague in all their proteus forms, 
And ocean's rage, and faction's ruder storms;
Lust, malice, fraud, and envy's evil eye,
Rapine for gold, and curse of slavery.
   Though pomp and pleasure many a bait prepare, 
And fame her radiance shed, and beauty glare, 
And worldly wisdom with proverbial pride 
And quaint conceits, her native darkness hide, 
And curious learning spread her ample store, 
And philosophic ken the skies explore, 
And poesy in waves of magic roll,
And patriot eloquence inflame the soul,
And bravery assert the laurel crown,
And love impassioned call mankind her own
All without grace, but imitate the gleam
Of the false lake--they are not what they seem; 
The flippant vision sparkles in the sun,
Then fades in death, and leaves the world undone.
   Yes, that fair form "now risen from the dust, 
Of graceful carriage and proportions just,
That "visage beaming with celestial light," 
Fresh as the morn and as the day-star bright,
Beneath the curse, must soon to dust return,
The senseless tenant of some silent urn.
The worm must feed upon that glowing cheek, 
That tongue of eloquence must cease to speak,
That eye forget its beam--no art can save
Those manly features from their destined grave.
But the dark future in her hidden womb,
Holds deeper secrets--far below the tomb
A prison frowns; a mansion of despair,
The deathless worm, the flames unquench'd are there! 
Severed from God, the soul without resource, 
Helpless and hopeless, speeds her downward course; 
And while the mortal wreck unheeding lies,
Hers is the sterner death that never dies.
Rise then, Immanuel, victor o'er the strife,
Proclaim thine own free boon of light and life!
By thee the streams of reconciling love
Forever flowing from the fount above,
Ordered of God, obedient to his plan
Of perfect holiness, descend to man.
   Hail, word of promise, graciously bestowed
Ere man was driven from his blest abode, 
Promise of joy--"The woman's seed shall tread, 
Though bruised his heel, upon the serpent's head; 
Shall level with the dust his rebel brow,
Then bid him sink to boundless gulphs below; 
Shall raise our fallen race to loftier height
Than ere was compassed by thought's eagle flight, 
To happiness and virtue freely given,
To God, to glory, to the throne of heaven."
   Lo, blood is stealing o'er the grassy plain:--
Pride of the flock, by faithful Abel slain; 
Slain in obedience to His high behest,
Who gives, then claims, the firstling and the best: 
Strange sacrifice, by reason unexplained!
Why should those virtuous hands with gore be stain'd? 
No flesh permitted yet to human need--
The flame alone must on the victim feed; 
Flame from the skies descending, radiant sign 
Of heaven's accord and pardoning love divine.
By faith, not reason, was the offering made; 
And now that lambent light dispels the shade; 
The fire celestial bursting into view,
Consumes the type, and proves the promise true. 
Foreknown of God, before all worlds decreed, 
In time to come, for all mankind must bleed,
A sinless Lamb--the woman's holy seed.
   Meanwhile the promise with the age extends
Each rolling period some new feature lends, 
To mark its character with various line, 
Unfold its beauty, and its shape define; 
Just as some germ in nature's fruitful field, 
Pregnant with forms well folded, well conceal'd, 
Shoots and increases with revolving days, 
And part by part, the destined plant displays, 
Uplifts a stem obedient to the shower,
Then pours a hundred leaves, then blooms a flower.
   From Abraham the promised Seed shall spring, 
From Judah's tribe the world accept her king,
From Jesse's root and David's royal line,
Shall rise, with gentle force, that Branch divine. 
By heaven's own power a virgin shall conceive,
And Bethlehem's shade the newborn Prince receive; 
Not till yon temple on Moriah's height,
Have sunk in flames--a second sprung to sight; 
Nor till the sceptre of proud Judah's sway 
With all his laws, be trembling in decay;
The seventieth week that hallowed birth shall see, 
From Israel's hope renewed, and Persia's kind decree.
   Like yon pale star that ushers in the day,
A royal herald shall prepare his way, 
Proclaim his coming with the Spirit's voice, 
And bid the wilderness in hope rejoice. 
Expected, then, upon the earth shall stand
The saints' Redeemer, and with mercy's hand--
Like Moses--yet with power to no man given, 
Shall save and regulate the flock of heaven; 
Shall bid stout hearts to noble deeds be strung, 
And gently lead the weak, and fold the young
To his warm breast, that in those halcyon days
Babes may rejoice, and sucklings sing his praise.
Then like the hart, the lame with joy shall bound,
The deaf be gladdened with the gospel sound,
The blind with opened eye behold his face,
Gaze on his glory, and admire his grace,
While o'er the desert living waters roll,
To quench the anxious thirsting of the soul.
He, girt with faithfulness, and clad with zeal,
Shall truth celestial to the meek reveal,
Shall teach the simple and sincere to climb,
To Zion's gate by virtue's path sublime--
Himself their pattern, comrade, captain, friend--
And crown with joy and praise their journey's end.
   The mighty God by nature and by name,
The Lord our righteousness--the true I Am--
He yet shall suffer in our mortal frame!
From the dry soil the humble plant must grow,
No wreath of comeliness adorn his brow;
Where shall our glad report attract belief? 
Lowly his form--his visage marred with grief; 
Rejected, scorned, whom no man dares to know--
Sorrow his friend--his fellowship with woe! 
For us, for us, he bears the chastening rod,
His are the stripes, and ours is peace with God; 
The silent sufferer to the slaughter led--
Our sins inflict his wounds, our crime is on his head!
   Behold, the slain one shall prolong his day, 
The worm and Hades must resign their prey--
Like ocean's vista with the moon-beam bright, 
Blazes his "path of life" with .heavenly light.
He lives! he reigns! heaven's gates receive their king, 
"The Captor captive led," applauding angels sing.
   While prophecy, unfolding age by age,
And ever germinant, adorned the page, 
God's ritual law, with pencil nicely true, 
The curious shadows of the future drew. 
Was it to signify the past alone,
The paschal victim knew no broken bone.
Food of all Israel, and stained with gore
The lintel and the posts of every door?
Of old where'er that sacred blood was sprent, 
No plague could taint, no deadly shaft be sent; 
Now, for the soul that bears a lovelier stain, 
Death drops his sting, and Satan's darts are vain.
   Once every year a sacred day was kept,
When Israel for her sins repentant wept,
And purified afresh, in linen vest,
Humble but clean, her solemn priest was dress'd. 
Doffed were his gorgeous robes and jewel'd crown, 
The bullock now must for himself atone, 
The goat for all the people; calm he stands 
Within the veil, the censer in his hands; 
And while the perfume pours a balmy flood; 
Bedews, seven times, the mercy-seat with blood. 
But now the alternate goat with fillets bound, 
To meet his coming treads the holy ground, 
Allotted to escape, and with him bear 
The sins of Israel into desert air,
Sins, which the priest before the Lord must spread, 
Then lay the burden on his spotless head. 
Away he springs, unconscious and alone, 
And hides his mystic load in lands unknown. 
The guilt he carries can no more return--
Meanwhile, without the gate, the slaughtered victims burn!
The priest in humble garb, and holiest place, 
Conversing with Jehovah face to face--
The dying beasts that pour the crimson tide--
The scape-goat o'er the desert wandering wide--
Pictures of truth with various art combined, 
Their end and substance in one Saviour, find.
   Saviour, incarnate, glorified, enthroned,
Whose precious blood for all our race atoned, 
Well versed in death, familiar with the grave--
A man to sympathize, and God to save--
Thy prospect spreads interminably bright,
 Thy boundless retrospect is filled with light;
Unnumbered, infinite, have sped thy years, 
Ere Seraphs sang, or rolled the starry spheres; 
Center in thee, past, present, and to come, 
The Father's bosom thy eternal home.
   Time saw its fulness, and the Saviour came, 
That messenger divine of hidden name,
With whom of yore, was Jacob's covenant made, 
Whom Abraham saw, and trusted, and obeyed; 
Living Redeemer of the orphan'd sire, 
Who spake to Moses from the bush on fire, 
Before whose feet the awe-struck Joshua bowed, 
Who led all Israel in the flame and cloud; 
Whose praise the seraphs chanted as they flew 
When burst his glory on Isaiah's view, 
Ambassador at once, and Lord of heaven--
When Mary's child was born, the Son of God was given. 
Now is the vast prophetic knot untied, 
The ancient vision cleared and verified; 
The types and promises to facts apply, 
Each figure finds its own reality--
All meet in Jesus, all in him combine,
Ten thousand rays in one grand focus join
   Death to the sinful soul the law demands, 
And calls for vengeance at God's holy hands, 
But grace prevails and free remission gives, 
The Saviour died, the ransomed sinner lives. 
No human learning could that problem solve, 
Justice and peace around the cross revolve;
Faith winged with prayer draws mercy from above, 
And sternest truth amalgamates with love. 
In every age by this appointed way,
Some souls, redeemed, have sprung to endless day, 
Their faith proportioned to the light bestowed, 
Their end was glory, for they lived to God. 
But who shall speak the solemn soft repose, 
Which on his Saviour's breast the Christian knows? 
On Christ the burden of his sins is laid,
On Christ, in reverent trust, his heart is stayed; 
Contrite yet firm, the alarm of war recedes, 
The Saviour's righteousness alone he pleads;
That plea victorious over Satan's wiles,
His frown he fears not, for Immanuel smiles;
Opened for him is Zion's sacred flood,
His conscience rests--his soul is cleansed with blood;
Let troubles multiply, let pains increase--
His inward treasure is the pearl of peace.
   But mark the unbending rule--no peace within,
While man's frail bosom is the sport of sin;
By passion tossed, as miry billows roar,
And spread pollution, when they lash the shore.
The deep, deceitful, restless, heart of man,
Must yield obedience to the gospel plan,
Renounce its pride, commence a nobler strife,
Rise from the dust, and struggle into life.
   Accepted be the boon of light divine
That our redeeming God has given to shine
In every human breast, else wholly dark;
Though often weak, yet pure the vital spark;
Call it not "conscience"--conscience is the eye
That spark illumines, or the soul must die;
The moral truth attracts the mental sight,
The medium that reveals its form is light.
And God is light--from God the source of day, 
Through Him who died and lives, the Truth, the Way, 
Changeless from age to age, proceeds the ray,
The same in Britain, India, Athens, Rome,
Man's heart and conscience its appointed home. 
Thus Gentiles who no heavenly code possessed
On stony tablet, to the law confessed
As read within, though faintly and in part,
And showed its precepts graven on the heart.
Like men once dead, but wakened from the tomb, 
Some gifted spirits burst the general gloom,
In calm retreats, by classic reasoners trod,
Gave form to virtue, and discoursed of God.
Yet Grecia's sages but the twilight knew,
No noonday radiance blazed before their view,
Around e'en Plato's brows a veil was hung,
Error with truth distilling from his tongue.
Then hail God's holy page, the gospel hail! 
Unfurl the canvass, spread the swelling sail; 
Fly forth ye words of truth from shore to shore, 
For heaven's own Sun is risen to set no more!
   Gems beyond price the folded book conceals, 
And only Jesus can unloose its seals. 
Lion of Judah, Prince of all the tribes
That worship God, as heaven itself prescribes, 
Pour thy bright beams, thy Spirit deign to give, 
And teach mankind to understand and live; 
Anoint the slumbering eye, the stubborn ear, 
Melt the proud heart, inspire the godly fear, 
Convince of sin, and then disclose the tide 
Of blood and water, from thy pierced side, 
That flows for ever; cleanse thy church within; 
Sprinkle the nations from their guilt and sin. 
Thou art the one baptizer; thine the wave 
In which alone the leprous soul can lave; 
As Naaman erst in Jordan's sacred stream 
Seven times immersed, his cure might fitly deem
A new existence, and himself a child,
Now soft and pure--once hardened and defiled. 
What though an entrance on the joys of heaven 
Through the one sacrifice be freely given
To all believers, none indeed believe
But the regenerate--none but they receive
The guerdon kept by Jesus for his own.
Who bear the cross on earth, in heaven shall wear the crown.
   Bless'd Spirit, like the wind that viewless blows, 
Whence coming, whither fleeing, no man knows, 
Yet armed of heaven to break with giant stroke 
The towering cedar and the spreading oak; 
Or mildly breathing as a summer breeze, 
Felt to refresh, perceptible to please--
Spirit of truth--move onward as the wind, 
Break, humble, cleanse, and vivify mankind.
   Beneath that sovereign touch, that vital breath, 
The soul emerges from the realms of death,
Escapes her prison--flings her chain away,
Claims a new life, and rises into day.
Have ye not marked the verdant pastures gleam 
In diamonds dressed beneath the orient beam, 
Sparkles on every grassy blade a gem,
On every blossom rests a diadem;
So bright, so lovely, is the child of grace,
In youth, just entered on the christian race; 
Ardent but tender, pliable yet true,
Beaming with love, and fresh with heavenly dew. 
What though as years roll on, and shift the scene, 
A calmer, cooler, mood may supervene,
Yet spreads the root in the deep soil below,
And riper fruits on firmer branches grow;
Well tempered charity, substantial peace, 
Wisdom and fortitude, with years increase; 
Patience to suffer, meekness to forbear,
With nice discernment of each hidden snare;
The watchful eye; the ever deepening sense
Of man's defect, and God's omnipotence;
The chastened heart, oft prostrate in the dust, 
the steadfast walking, the unbending trust, 
And hope well settled on the joys above, 
The calm refection of a Saviour's love--
To perfect day, the just man's path shall shine, 
Thou Holy Comforter, its light is THINE.
   Now breathe the spices, now the zephyr blows,
Spreads the green carpet, God's broad river flows,
Bursts forth the myrtle, shoots the box, the pine, 
Scents all the grove the twisted eglantine,
The jasmine pours her stars, with roses crowned 
Sweet Sharon smiles, where once the desert frowned.
No more impends the death-forboding gloom, 
Whiile sweeps o'er boundless sands the hot simoom, 
Nor wounds the thorn, nor scorpion darts her sting 
Pregnant with death; but round their odors fling, 
Fresh with soft showers, the blossoms of the spring.
   Hark, matchless melody! the bridegroom's voice 
Steals o'er the gale and bids his spouse rejoice;
"Awake, my fair one, winter reigns no more, 
The storms are past, the hurricane is o'er, 
Rise from thy couch and tread the dewy lawn, 
The turtle's note salutes the opening dawn
All resonant with song, the groves, the bowers, 
And lavish nature fills her lap with flowers.
To please each sense their early sweets combine, 
The fig just ripening, and the fragrant vine;
Ten thousand charms shall bless this hallowed day, 
Arise my love--my fair one, come away."
   Hail new creation! sovereign work of grace! 
In Paradise shall man regain his place--
A fruitful field in ancient Eden's stead
With pure religion, o'er the world shall spread; 
Break forth with praise ye mountains, sing ye plains, 
Applaud ye waving woods, for Jesus reigns. 
Yet death still lingers here; then hail the love, 
That won for man a Paradise above!
Around the throne, the purchased myriads stand 
Of every kindred, and from every land;
O'er angel forms celestial garments flow
Baptized in blood, yet whiter than snow;
The church triumphant claims her Saviour's breast,
In perfect victory, is PERFECT REST.