Good Friday
‘A horror of great darkness at broad noon— I, only I.’ /
Am I a stone and not a sheep
That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy Cross,
To number drop by drop Thy Blood’s slow loss,
And yet not weep?
Not so those women loved
Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;
Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;
Not so the thief was moved;
Not so the Sun and Moon
Which hid their faces in a starless sky,
A horror of great darkness at broad noon—
I, only I.
Yet give not o’er,
But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
And smite a rock.
Christina Rossetti was a 19th-century Anglo-Catholic poet best known for penning the words to the Christmas hymn “In the Bleak Midwinter.” This poem is in the public domain.
Also in this Issue
Issue 19 / April 2, 2015- Editors’ Note
- Back from the Dead? Heard It Before.
The Bible, history books, and newspapers are full of resurrection stories. But something different happened at Jesus’ tomb. /
- Seeds—Small and Mighty
They’ve done nothing less than transform the planet. /
- Why Jesus Used Bad Science
When God humbled himself, his intellect was not exempt. /
- Wonder on the Web
Links to amazing stuff /