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.

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Also in this Issue

Issue 19 / April 2, 2015
  1. Editors’ Note
  2. 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. /

  3. Seeds—Small and Mighty

    They’ve done nothing less than transform the planet. /

  4. Why Jesus Used Bad Science

    When God humbled himself, his intellect was not exempt. /

  5. Wonder on the Web

    Links to amazing stuff /

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