________________________________________________
Title: Behold Your King
Author: Frances Ridley Havergal [
More Titles by Havergal]
'Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto My sorrow.'--LAM. I. 12.
BEHOLD your King! Though the moonlight steals
Through the silvery sprays of the olive tree,
No star-gemmed sceptre or crown it reveals,
In the solemn shade of Gtehsemane.
Only a form of prostrate grief,
Fallen, crushed, like a broken leaf!
Oh, think of His sorrow! that we may know
The depth of love in the depth of woe.
Behold your King! Is it nothing to you,
That the crimson tokens of agony
From the kingly brow must fall like dew,
Through the shuddering shades of Gethsemane?
Jesus Himself, the Prince of Life,
Bows in mysterious mortal strife;
Oh, think of His sorrow! that we may know
The unknown love in the unknown woe.
Behold your King, with His sorrow crowned,
Alone, alone in the valley is He!
The shadows of death are gathering round,
And the Cross must follow Gethsemane.
Darker and darker the gloom must fall,
Filled is the Cup, He must drink it all!
Oh, think of His sorrow! that we may know
His wondrous love in His wondrous woe.
NOTE. After F. R. H.'s MS. copy of 'Adoration,' written Dec. 31,1866, she adds: 'I find this is exactly my hundredth poem, beginning from my No. 2 MS. book, and not reckoning juvenile pieces before I left school. I am not sorry that "Adoration" happens to close the round number as well as the year 1866. I should like the same subject, only better treated, to close my verse-writing for life. One would wish one's last poem to be some expression of praise to the Crucified One.'
It is a remarkable coincidence that 'Behold your King,' and 'He Suffered,' are the closing poems in F. R. H.'s book, written in pencil, 1879
[The end]
Frances Ridley Havergal's poem: Behold your King!
________________________________________________
GO TO TOP OF SCREEN
