Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, MEDITATIONS FOR EVERY DAY IN PASSION WEEK: THURSDAY, by JOHN BYROM


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

MEDITATIONS FOR EVERY DAY IN PASSION WEEK: THURSDAY, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Dead as men are, in trespasses and sins
Last Line: The gate of life, and paradise regain'd.
Subject(s): Bible; Christianity; Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ - Life & Ministry; Religion; Resurrection, The; Theology


DEAD as men are, in trespasses and sins,
Whence is it in them that new life begins?
'Tis that, by God's great mercy, love, and grace,
The seed of Christ is in the human race;
That inward, hidden Man, that can revive,
And, "dead in Adam," rise "in Christ alive."

Life natural and life divine possess'd
Must needs unite, to make a creature bless'd.
The first, a feeling hunger and desire
Of what it cannot of itself acquire;
Wherein the second, entering to dwell,
Makes all a heav'n, that would be else a hell.

As only light all darkness can expel,
So was his conquest, over death and hell,
The only possible, effectual way
To raise to life what Adam's sin could slay:
Death, by the falling; by the rising man,
The resurrection of the dead began.

This heav'nly Parent of the human race
The steps, that Adam fell by, could retrace;
Could bear the suff'rings requisite to save;
Could die, a man, and triumph o'er the grave:
This, for our sakes, Incarnate Love could do;
Great is the mystery, and greatly true.

Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, and the choir
Of holy virgin witnesses, conspire
To animate a Christian to endure
Whatever cross God gives him, for his cure:
Looking to Jesus, who has led the way
From death to life, from darkness into day.

Unmov'd by earthly good or earthly ill,
The man Christ Jesus wrought God's blessed will:
Death, in the nature of the thing, that hour
Wherein he died, lost all its deadly pow'r:
Then, then was open'd, by what he sustain'd,
The gate of life, and paradise regain'd.





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