Philochristus: Memoirs of a Disciple of the LordAbbott, Edwin Abbott
Religion
Philochristus: Memoirs of a Disciple of the Lord
Abbott, Edwin Abbott
Christian fiction; Jesus Christ -- Fiction
But before we lay down to rest that night, we spake again of Jesus, and
concerning all that he had said and done; and we continued our discourse
late into the night, and were loth to break off; for while we discoursed
together of former times, we seemed to have Jesus again in the midst of
us. But at the end, when we were now ceasing, the Spirit of the Lord fell
upon Mary of Magdala, and she lifted up her voice and sang as the Lord
moved her, and the words were even from the psalm whereof we had been but
now speaking, while discoursing concerning the forsaking of Jesus by God.
Now the song describeth the suffering of the Messiah. Therefore when she
came in her singing to these words, “They pierced my hands and my feet; I
may tell all my bones; they stand staring and looking upon me. They part
my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture”: then we wept,
remembering the sufferings of Jesus. But when she sang the next words,
“But be not thou far from me, O Lord. Thou art my succour, haste thee to
help me. Deliver my soul from the sword, my darling also from the power of
the dog. Save me from the lion’s mouth: Thou hast heard me from among the
horns of the unicorns. I will declare thy name unto my brethren; in the
midst of the congregation will I praise thee. For he hath not despised,
nor abhorred the low estate of the poor; he hath not hid his face from
him; but when he called unto him he heard him”: then we wept no longer,
but we marvelled while we looked on her, and while we hearkened to the
words of her singing: for she sang as one taught of God, so that we durst
not stay her; yet we thought in our hearts, “Notwithstanding when Jesus
called unto Him, He heard him not.” And when we thought on this we
besought her that she would cease.
Howbeit she ceased not, but began to sing yet another psalm, a part of the
great Hallel; even the very words that Jesus himself had sung to us on the
night before he suffered. And the other women joined with her, and they
sang so that the sound thereof pierced to our very souls. Then could we
endure it no longer, but covered our faces with our hands. But they
continued singing, “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of
the Lord. The Lord hath chastened and corrected me, but he hath not given
me over unto death. Thou art my God, and I will thank thee; thou art my
God, and I will praise thee.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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