Virginia Free Press

From the Cincinnati Mirror.

THE CRUCIFIXION.

BY OTWAY CURRY.

There is a hill of strange, and high renown,
In the steep border of Jerusalem.
Along whose brown and ragged side was seen
In days of old, a steel-clad warrior train.
A captive king went with them silently—
And scorn, and hatred, and the thorns and stings
Of enmity, were heaped upon his head:
Yet the derision, and reproach of those
Who spoke his doom, were answered not again.
The morning light of heaven came down that day
Upon the mountain's summit, glancing o'er
The rocks and fountains, and the stranger king
Hung suffering in its radiance; he expired—
And instantly the burning sun was dark,
And the pale tenants of the grave came forth
And gazed upon the long-forgotten forms
Of human kind. The darkness wore away,
And noiselessly within the sepulchre
The blameless Sacrifice for sin was laid,
And numbered with the dead. Appointed
guards,
The chosen of the band, stood idly there,
Till the third morning came: then gorgeously
The arch-angelic messengers of God
Came shining down, and bowed themselves
before
The grave of Jesus. Glorious conqueror!
They come to hail thee, victor over death!
Once crucified, but now exalted Lamb!
Their songs proclaim the glories of thy reign,
And everlasting kingdom.
Mary came
To weep at the deserted sepulchre:
"Woman, why weepest thou?" "The Jews
have borne
The body of my sleeping master hence."
"Mary
in Rabbouni:" "Mortal, touch me
not!
Go to my faithful remnant, and proclaim
That I ascend to sit upon the throne
Of Majesty Eternal." A bright cloud
Received him, and was swiftly borne away:
And a small band of wondering witnesses
Steadfastly gazed upon its skyward flight.
It rested in the far, and blessed Heaven,
Wafted by the white-appareled Cherubim.
The gazers bade that blissful scene farewell,
And wound their way through the wide-spreading
world.
Preaching "glad tidings" and "good will to
men."