England's Antiphon

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THE REPRISAL.

I have considered it, and find
There is no dealing with thy mighty Passion;

For
though I die for thee, I am behind: My sins deserve the condemnation.

O make me innocent, that I

May give a disentangled state and free; And yet thy wounds still my attempts defy,

For by thy death I die for thee.

Ah! was it not enough that thou

By thy eternal glory didst outgo me? Couldst thou not grief's sad conquest me allow,

But in all victories overthrow me?

Yet by confession will I come

Into the conquest: though I can do nought Against thee, in thee I will overcome

The man who once against thee fought.

Even embracing the feet of Jesus, Mary Magdalene or George Herbert must rise and go forth to do his will.

It will be observed how much George Herbert goes beyond all that have preceded him, in the expression of feeling as it flows from individual conditions, in the analysis of his own moods, in the logic of worship, if I may say so. His utterance is not merely of personal love and grief, but of the peculiar love and grief in the heart of George Herbert. There may be disease in such a mind; but, if there be, it is a disease that will burn itself out. Such disease is, for men constituted like him, the only path to health. By health I mean that simple regard to the truth, to the will of God, which will turn away a man's eyes from his own conditions, and leave God free to work his perfection in him--free, that is, of the interference of the man's self-consciousness and anxiety. To this perfection St. Paul had come when he no longer cried out against the body of his death, no more judged his own self, but left all to the Father, caring only to do his will. It was enough to him then that God should judge him, for his will is the one good thing securing all good things. Amongst the keener delights of the life which is at the door, I look for the face of George Herbert, with whom to talk humbly would be in bliss a higher bliss.




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