In those days even a pun might be a serious thing: witness the play in
the last stanza on the words _son_ and _sun_--not a mere pun, for the Son
of the Father is the Sun of Righteousness: he is Life _and_ Light.
What the Doctor himself says concerning the hymn, appears to me not only
interesting but of practical value. He "did occasionally say to a friend,
'The words of this hymn have restored to me the same thoughts of joy that
possessed my soul in my sickness, when I composed it.'" What a help it
would be to many, if in their more gloomy times they would but recall the
visions of truth they had, and were assured of, in better moments!
Here is a somewhat strange hymn, which yet possesses, rightly understood,
a real grandeur:
A HYMN TO CHRIST
_At the Author's last going into Germany_.[76]
In what torn ship soever I embark,
That ship shall be my emblem of thy ark;
What sea soever swallow me, that flood
Shall be to me an emblem of thy blood.
Though thou with clouds of anger do disguise
Thy face, yet through that mask I know those eyes,
Which, though they turn away sometimes--
They never will despise.
I sacrifice this island unto thee,
And all whom I love here and who love me:
When I have put this flood 'twixt them and me,
Put thou thy blood betwixt my sins and thee.
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