Cast thyself down in adoring love, Race bowed down by the curse of God! Peace and grace out of Zion above! He is not wroth forever, Though his wrath be just—though uplifted his rod. Thus saith he, who changeth never: "I will not the death of a sinner—I will forgive— Let him live!" And he gave up his son the world from sin to free, Praise and thanks we give, Eternal, to thee! Suddenly there was heard a noise of singing. A great multitude came pouring down the narrow street that runs past Pilate's

People of God behold; thy Savior is nigh to thee! He is come who was promised thee long ago. Oh! hear him, follow his guidance Blessing and life will he bring to thee. But blind and deaf Jerusalem has shown herself; She has thrust back the hands held out to her in love; Therefore also the Highest has turned away his face, And lets her sink to destruction. Jesus, accompanied by all his disciples, set out to pay his last visit to Bethany. Peter, with his staff in hand, walked with John beside the

O Judas, art thou blinded quite By untamed greed of gold and gear? And would thou sell thy master dear For base gain? Shudders not thy soul in dire affright? Thy lot has passed into the night, Already doth thy doom appear. "'Tis one of you that shall betray," Three times the Lord thus spoke to him— Who's purposed his own soul to slay— Yet is his conscience dull and dim, For Satan rules his heart within And lust for gold that's won by sin. "Oh Judas! but one moment stay. Oh! finish not this foule

The foulest deed will soon be done That earth or hell displays— Alas! ere this night's course be run Judas his Lord betrays! Come now, ye faithful souls draw nigh See Jesus suffer, bleed and die, Now has begun the anguished fight Beyond in dark Gethsemane. O, sinners never let this night For evermore forgotten be! For your salvation this has been Which on the mountain we have seen, When, sorrowing unto death, he sank To earth, it was for you— 'Twas for your sake the damp turf drank Those drops o

How bleeds my heart! The Holiest stands before the judgement seat. The malice of sinners he must bear, Betrayed and outraged, bound and beaten there. O, sons of men, your faces veil this day!— The scarred form is touched by impious hands, From Annas dragged to Caiaphas away, What's here foreshadowed, see, fulfilled it stands. See Jesus, how in silence he Bears outrage, blows and mockery! O! what a man! Oh, hearts of men who now draw near, Melt with compassion when you see Bowed down in deepest m

The guilty deed fails not to win its wages, The guiltless blood he sold cries from the ground; Driven to madness by the worm that rages And scourged by furies, Judas ranges round Wildly, and finds no rest From the fire in his breast, Till swept away by bitterest despair He flings away in reckless haste The load of life he can no longer bear. When Jesus was being mocked and ill-treated by the soldiers in the guardroom of Caiaphas' palace, Judas wandered to and fro in despair. "Now my fearful fore

Thus before Pilate's judgment seat The council, full of passion's heat, Come to demand Messiah's blood. Oh, what has made them mad and blind? And what has kindled in their mind Of fury such a fiery flood? 'Tis envy which no mercy knows In which hell's flame most fiercely glows— Lights this devouring fire, All's sacrificed unto its lust— Nothing too sacred, good or just To fall to its desire. Oh, woe to those whom passion sweeps Helpless and bound into the deeps. Then went the high priests and th

See! what form of woe standeth the Saviour there! Even Pilate himself's touched with compassion now Foolish people and blinded, Have you no hearts to pity him? No, for seized with madness they cry, "To the cross with him!" Cry for torture and death upon the holiest. For Barabbas, the murderer, Pardon asking, and liberty. Oh, how otherwise once 'fore the Egyptian folk Joseph! Around him shouts echoed, and songs of joy As the Savior of Egypt He was solemnly shown to them. But round the world's del

Ye pious souls rise up and go, With grateful penitence aglow With me to Golgotha, and see What shall be done your souls to free See how the Mediator dies The atoning death of sacrifice. O, who can know the love that lives In this heart now laid bare, That kindness back for hatred gives And saves us from despair? Offer this love of His Your heart's best impulses, His cross before, For evermore. Thus they took Jesus and led him away, and a great multitude followed him. And when Jesus, bearing the

Written by Mr. Stead at Ober-Ammergau the night after witnessing the performance of the Passion Play. This is the story that transformed the world! Yes, and will yet transform it! Yes, thank God, so the answer comes; and will yet transform it until the kingdom comes! This is the story that transformed the world. I awoke shortly after midnight, after seeing the Passion Play at Ober-Ammergau, with these words floating backward and forward in my head like a peal of bells from some distant spire. Ba

Wherein does it modify orthodox opinions? Chiefly in humanizing them, in making the gospel story "palpitate with actuality" to quote the French phrase which Matthew Arnold loved to use. These people on the stage at Ober-Ammergau are not lay figures, mere abstract representations of the virtues or the opposite. They live, breathe and act just as if they were actors in a French or Russian novel. That is the great difference. These poor players have brought our Lord to life again. In their hands he

The story of the Passion Play has ever been real to me in another than a Catholic sense. It has been the perpetual re-incarnation of the divine story in the history of our own times that has absorbed my attention. These ancient figures on the stage of New Testament history were but of importance in so far as they lived again in our own life. Of their mystical theological significance I am, of course, not speaking. This is a thing apart. But the perpetual re-incarnation of God's Messiah in the gr