“Blessed are ye that mourn”

Sermon on the Mount. St Luke.

(The Gospel History, Section 43)

Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.

“Blessed are ye that mourn”

(The Saviour of the World, Vol II Book III Poem XXXII)

And spake the Lord:—

“Blest, ye that mourn!”

Ye, sorrowful, that sadly go
Contrite for all your nation’s woe;
Know, every vice of rich and poor,
Your people’s sin, lies at your door!
Well may’st cast ashes on thy head
Who seldom hath admonishéd
Or taught or helped, or given thy life
To stop the fratricidal strife
Brother from brother rends apart,
In village home, in city mart!
No separate place for thy poor soul,
Thine is the wrong infects the whole!
Well may’st thou weep (and work the while),
For lust and ravage, which defile
God’s chosen place, a people’s heart
Erst for His glory set apart!
But weep no more; glad, go thou forth;
These Augæan stables of the earth
Shall yield to cleansing Arm, not thine,
But thine, to share in task divine!
Who knows power with him well may laugh—
How poor the grain, how much the chaff
In that poor ear of effort grown
From seed of Word so freely sown!

To the disciples said the Lord,
Of certain hope, a joyful word;

“Blest, ye that mourn!”

The Twelve their secret heart disclose;
Another grace in them he knows
Who tries them by the word of God!
Not theirs, insensible as clod,
Their Israel’s woes to disregard,
Nor grieve at chastisements, full hard
For people of Jehovah’s land
To bear at alien nation’s hand!

Blest, ye that mourn!

For you that laugh and sing to-day,
Nor heed at all your people’s smart,
Nor in their anguish claim your part—
Your woe shall tarry not, nor stay!

St. Luke vi. 21