Ecce Homo

A man of sorrows and with grief acquainted,
He bowed His beauteous head to the rude hands
Of Pilate’s hireling bands;
And while beneath their cruel scourge He fainted,
Forgave them, yearning through His shameful smart
Even with a brother’s heart.
And when upon their Roman cross they nailed Him,
With mocking hatred and scorn’s bitter smile,
Hark! How He prayed, the while
Nature’s extremest agony assailed Him—
“Father, Thy mercy unto these renew,
They know not what they do.”

For the great precept of His Christianity
Was always, “Live in charity; yea, live
To love and to forgive,
That so My spirit may through all humanity
Pass ever downward with a widening birth,
Till peace possess the earth.”

Charles Harpur