Die Peinigung Vom Geisselschwung, Der Schmerz der Dornenkrone, Und jede Plag, Und jede Klag, Steht vor dem Menschensohne. Und vor Ihm schwebt— Er schaut’s und bebt— Das Kreuz, vom Fluch beschweret; Er fühlt die Qual, Die Ihm am Pfahl Des Lebens Mark verzehret. Zur Erde fällt Der Herr der Welt, Ihm will die Brust zerspringen; Blickt stöhnend dann Den Himmel an, Und ruft mit Händeringen: O lass an Mir, Gefällt es Dir, Den Kelch vorübergehen! Doch, Vater, nicht Was mein Herz spricht, Was Du willst soll geschehen. Und dreimal schickt, In Staub gebückt, Der Mittler dieses Flehen Zum Himmel auf— Vom Himmel d’rauf Wird Lind’rung seinen Wehen. Heil uns! Er nimmt, So Ihm bestimmt, Den bittern Kelch der Leiden! Anbetung Dir, Herr, für und für, Und Preis in ew’ge Zeiten! Ungenannt. Gethsemane. The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. _Isaiah_, liii. 6. Within a Garden’s bound, Where still night reigned around, A mournful cry of bitter anguish wailed; There, hid from mortal gaze, One knelt in deep amaze, A Heart oppressed beneath its Burthen quailed. That One, in travail sore, Was our dear Lord, Who bore Our sins’ great burthen that on Him was laid; While none could bring relief, To that exceeding grief, The grief that made His human Soul afraid. But lo! from those hot veins, Forced out by mental pains, Great Drops of Blood adown the verdure fall; Such whelming fears assail, That heart and courage fail, As first essays of sin’s strange load appal. No other gaze but His Could fathom that abyss, Whose lowest depths to Him stood all revealed; The sins of Adam’s race, Against God’s Love and Grace, His thought embraced them all as thus He kneeled. Ungodly counsels then, And deeds of evil men, All sins of each degree, of every kind; Not as to mortal eyes, But in their hellish guise, Were then all bared to His Omniscient Mind. The ponderous weight of all, From Adam’s grievous fall, Till earth’s Last Day and solemn Reckoning Time; Of all God’s Books record, The curse, the due reward, Th’ iniquity of all now laid on Him! That high-filled Cup of Woes, His Prescient Mind foreknows, From first approach of Judas’ torch-led host; That false disciple’s kiss, And all that followed this, Till on the Cross He yielded up the ghost.