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September 1st
It is finished. John 19:30
 s He passes out of death, He comes into a new life which He may now communicate.
As the load
Immense, intolerable, of the world's sin
Casting its dreadful shadow high as heaven,
Deep as Gehenna, nearer and more near
Grounded at last upon that Sinless Soul
With all its crushing weight and killing curse,
Then first, from all eternity then first,
From His beloved Son the Father's face
Was slowly averted, and its light eclipsed;
And through the midnight broke the Sufferer's groan
Eli Eli lama sabachthani?
But now
Once more the agonising Victim moan'd
Uttering His anguish in one dreadful plaint,
I thirst; His last: for, when the cooling sponge
Had touch'd His lips, a loud and different cry,
As if of triumph, It is finish'd, rang
Upon our startled ears; and with a child's
Confiding tender trustfulness, that breathed
Father, to Thy hands I commend My spirit,
He bow'd His head, and yielded up the ghost.
E.H. BICKERSTETH,
"Yesterday, Today and Forever."
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