The Householder Sending Forth His Son

Night was rest­ing on the peo­ple

Sin was out up­on the world

Darkness

ere the prince of dark­ness

From his ci­ta­del was hurled

Ere the Prince of Peace

His stand­ard

O’er the realms of strife un­furled.

Heathen mad­ly raged with hea­then

Each with vain imag­in­ing;

Brother hat­ed

slew his bro­ther

King went out to war with king

Till at length all ill abound­ed

And the dove of peace took wing.

All the na­tions sat in dark­ness

Loving best the veil of night;

God they would not own as rul­er

So they put Him out of sight;

Then the flames of Hell they quick­ened

Trampled on the true and right.

Thus the vine­yard God had plant­ed

Very good from east to west

Wicked hus­band­men had ru­ined

Eating

drink­ing

tak­ing rest

Cursing with their lusts and pass­ions

What the House­hold­er had blest.

He had hedged about the vine­yard

Dug the wine press

built the tow­er

Let it out and giv­en or­ders

Thou must serve and Thou have pow­er

So that He of fruit might ga­ther

Treasure in the vint­age hour.

One by one He sent His serv­ants

Till that hour should ful­ly come;

Some they beat

and some they ston­èd

Shamefully en­treat­ed some

They whose hearts were set on id­ols

Gods they fa­shioned

sense­less

dumb.

Last of all

the vine­yard’s rul­er

When the num­bered days were run

Thought up­on His lov­ing-kind­ness

Sent the sole-be­got­ten One

Sent His best Be­lov­èd

say­ing

They will rev­er­ence My Son.

Thus the Fa­ther in His pi­ty

Healed the world by guilt op­pressed

Gave com­mand­ment to the low­ly

Bade her ta­ber­na­cle rest

He who made her

Is­ra­el’s li­ly

Slumbered on her spot­less breast.

O

the mys­te­ry of mer­cy !

To the vine­yard comes the Heir

Leaves the Fa­ther’s ma­ny man­sions

Faithless hus­band­men to spare

Clothes Himself with hu­man na­ture

Deigns our ve­ry flesh to wear.

Heir of all things

we ad­ore Him

Whom the wick­ed mad­ly slew;

This the Heir

come let us kill Him.

Thus of old that god­less crew

Cast Him out the Fa­ther sent them

Thus they paid their Lord His due.