THE Saviour died, according to our faith, To quench, atone, or pacify a wrath. But "God is love;" He has no wrath his own; Nothing in him to quench or to atone: Of all the wrath that scripture hath reveal'd, The poor fall'n creature wanted to be heal'd. God, of his own pure love, was pleas'd to give The Lord of life, that thro' Him it might live; Thro' Christ; because none other could be found To heal the human nature of its wound: This great Physician of the soul had, sure, In Him, who gave him, no defect to cure. He did, he suffer'd ev'ry thing, that we From wrath, by sin enkindled, might be free; The wrath of God, in us, that is, the fire Of burning life, without the love-desire; Without the light, which Jesus came to raise, And change the wrath into a joyful blaze. The wrath is God's; but in Himself unfelt; As ice and frost are his, and pow'r to melt: Not even man could any wrath, as such, Till he had lost his first perfection, touch: God has but one immutable good-will,— To bless his creatures and to save from ill. Cordial or bitter a physician's draught, The patient's health is in his ord'ring thought: "God's mercies," or "God's judgments" be the name, Eternal health is his all-saving aim. "Vengeance belongs to God"—and so it should— For, love alone can turn it all to good. All that in nature by his act is done Is to give life; and life is in his Son: When his humility, his meekness finds Healing admission into willing minds, All wrath disperses, like a gath'ring sore; Pain is its cure, and it exists no more. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LITTLE SON by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON MY AIN COUNTREE by ALLAN CUNNINGHAM ASTROPHEL AND STELLA: 14 by PHILIP SIDNEY WHOLE DUTY OF CHILDREN by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON THE NIGHTINGALE THAT WAS DROWNED by PHILIP AYRES |