The breadth, and length,
And height, and depth; the weakness and the strength;
The mourning and the mirth; pleasure and pain;
The joy, the sorrow; and the loss and gain
Which meet in the incarnate Son of God
No mortal mind can know. With feet unshod
We may draw near, and as we gaze adore,
As all His varied glories shine before
Our ravished hearts. E’en from His wondrous birth
He nothing learned within the schools of earth.
He knew from whence He came, from form of God
To form of servant, found in flesh and blood,
That He might thus to guilty man draw near
And banish from his heart all sinful fear.
But not upon His parents’ love He leaned,
Nor from their lips one gleam of wisdom gleaned.
He speaks of God as all His confidence
When on His mother’s breast, and ever thence
About His Father’s business He went,
A perfect Servant unto Him who sent
Him here below in wisdom’s wondrous plan;
Restricting to the limits of a man
Himself, that He might Godhead glorify,
And bring the Father’s loving kindness nigh;
While never was He less—His name be blest—
Than the Eternal Son, God manifest.
The Father’s light to us below He brought;
The Father’s works in goodness great He wrought;
To death He went the might of death to break,
And free from its dread fear our spirits make.
And not in vain for us Himself He gave,
THE VICTIM IS VICTORIOUS O’ER THE GRAVE.