If
love shall stand the final test
If love shall stand
the final test,
it must assuage your
foe’s wild breast;
that you are mild when
he’s irate
is Christian love in
its pure state.
That lesson is as sour
and tart
as to our nature is death’s
dart,
seems much too heavy
and too stern
for Adam’s flint-hard
race to learn.
Yes, if we trust in
our own might,
we’ve quickly armed
ourselves to fight
and cannot stem the raging
flood
of fury in the old
Adam’s blood.
Oh let the heart do
penance sweet,
in Jesu’s blood both
merge and beat!
Then will the gentle
mind of Christ
as imprint in the soul
be pressed.
When we through
faith’s strong fire and light
our Jesu’s heart can
find aright,
that he for his own murderers
prayed
when they but mockery
displayed,
when in the heart’s
depths we collate
our many sins and
their great weight
which God forgave us at
one breath
in Jesu’s suffering
and death,
when this the Spirit
makes quite clear,
then in the soul’s
ignited here
a love that has so
strong a glow
that it embraces every
foe.
This love has such a
blazing heat
all earthly ash it will
defeat,
the soul to God will
make return –
the fifth commandment
then we learn.
Oh, with a fervent
heart may I
sweet Jesus, love you till
I die
and to your wounds
draw close, for so
most gladly will I love my foe!
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