dots-menu
×

Home  »  The Poets’ Bible  »  Thomas Not with the Ten

W. Garrett Horder, comp. The Poets’ Bible: New Testament. 1895.

Thomas Not with the Ten

Herbert Kynaston (1809–1878)

JOHN XX. 19–25.

O FAITHLESS found when all believed,

Where wast thou Thomas, then;

Not with the rout that raged without,

Not with the faithful Ten?

Why not with friends sure counsel take,

Who sought the House of Prayer;

O why, the first Lord’s-day forsake

The first assembling there?

Not hear the word, when first the Lord

His preacher’s flag unfurl’d

And lit their torches at the flame

Which overshone the world!

Not there, when each became—to preach

The Cross from pole to pole,—

Breath’d on with breath which conquer’d death,

An ever living soul!

Thou could’st the Jewish stones defy

For Him at danger’s call:

O better far with Christ to die,

When Christ has died for all!

It was not fear, for all were near

Who closed the doors for fright,

Hid in that room, when e’en the tomb

Was full of living light.

Or had’st thou stray’d to see display’d

The Paschal barley-ears,

Heaved bright and high across the sky,

When harvest-time appears?

More blest were they that week’s first day,

With Him the feast was kept,

Who came to wave, fresh from the grave,

First fruits of them that slept.