What is glory?
Jesus the Son of God, Himself God.
(The Gospel History, Section 79)
Jesus answered, If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing: it is my Father that glorifieth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God; and ye have not known him: but I know him; and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be like unto you, a liar: but I know him, and keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad. The Jews therefore said unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. They took up stones therefore to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple.
What is glory?
(The Saviour of the World, Vol V Book IV Poem LI)
The Lord. Verily, verily, who keeps My word,
That man shall not see death.
The Jews. Abraham is dead,
The prophets are dead; art greater than Abraham?
Who art Thou then? Whom makest Thou Thyself?
The Lord. I seek not Mine own glory; did I so,
I were as foolish men who plumage preen
To spread before th’ admiring multitude:
This do they, ignorant of what glory is,
That he who wears it knows not he’s adorned
Of God, who alone gives honour. Ye see not
The glory of goodness shining from a man:
This radiance gives My Father; and on Me,
Unstinted, pours the glory which is His,—
Author of goodness, glorious in His love!
Him, name ye your God the while ye know Him not
Nor can discern; else knew ye Me likewise;
I know Him; nay, ne’er mutter “blasphemy!”
Should I deny that I know Him, then, like you,
I were a liar: for whoso knows the truth
May not deny.
I keep My Father’s word,
Enduring contradiction, as Roman guard
Holds fast the imperial standard, dies for it.
The Jews. What is this word Thou keep’st?
The Lord. Your Scriptures shew,
Your prophets testify; Abraham himself,—
Was it for nought he left the Chaldean plains
And went, a homeless wanderer? He was glad;
His wand’rings, losses, famine, sword, nay, death,
Were as nought to Abraham, for he saw My day,
Lived in the fulness of the coming time,
And rejoiced in God his Saviour.
The Jews. What stuff is this!
Thou’rt not yet fifty years old, and hast Thou seen
Abraham, our father?
(His countenance was marred
More than the sons of men with lines of grief;
What havoc had been wrought that men conceived
Him old—past the prime of life! Behold, and see
The Man of Sorrows! tear-channelled, see, His cheek,
Deep lines of suffering round His eyes, His mouth!
“Not fifty yet,” they say,—“but looking more.”
What iron pen had, cruel, chiselled grooves
On the brow august of Him whom we adore!)
The Lord. Before Abraham was, I am. Ere God had laid
The foundations of the world, lo, I was there
In council with the Father. No prophet spake
But as I gave him words: no patriarch
Walked humbly with his God and gave their meat
To children and children’s children, but I was there
Sustaining that good man in righteous ways.
The Jews. Hear Him, ye people, hear! What blasphemies
Pour from His tongue—a black Gehenna flood!
And they took up stones to cast at Him; but now,
He was not there; in instant’s space He was gone:
In vain they searched the temple’s corridors,
Peeped behind hundred pillars, peered in doors,—
The Lord was not in the temple. Had He gone—
“Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him be,”—
Was this the sentence His withdrawal spake?
St. John viii. 54-59.
Genesis xii. 1-4.
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