One Name alone in all this death-struck earth,
One Name alone come down from highest heaven,
Whence healing and salvation we receive,
To sinful man is given.

Name brought by Gabriel from the heart of God,
And laid like flower-seed in the adoring breast
Of her, in whom the mystery was wrought,
And God made manifest:

O Name of Jesus! Of that lowly Babe
That on the sunny slopes of Nazareth strayed,
Or, calm and silent on the cottage floor,
With wild flowers played.

Name of the wondrous Child, that in the temple stood,
With brow all meekness, and with eye all light,
Who to the blinded teachers of the Law
Would have given sight:

Name of the Prophet, Healer, Master, Friend
Death’s mighty Vanquisher, and sorrow’s Cure,
The Fountain of new innocence for man,
That ever shall endure:

The secret, unutterable Name,
From the world’s earlier ages hid so long,
Now in time’s fullness given at length to be
The new creation’s song:

And yet it was the scorn of Jewish lips,
And written by unholy heathen pen,
Then nailed aloft upon the awful Cross,
Signal to God and men;

But never written in the dust of death,
Nor cut upon the portals of the grave,
So quickly He that threshold has recrossed,
Triumphantly to save.

It dropped from Heaven like gently falling plume,
Just when the shadow of the white cloud fell
Upon the Apostles’ upward-turnèd brows:
“O wherefore dwell,

Ye Galilæans, gazing up so long
Into the clear blue depths ye search in vain?
Lo! this same Jesus, rising to His Throne,
Shall so return again.”

Once more Heaven sent it down upon the earth,
When from Love’s central Fount the accents came,
And on the persecuting Saul poured down,
In glory and in flame.

O Name of value infinite! and yet
Thou mov’st our spirits with a deeper thrill,
For the dear lips that have Thy music breathed,
And then grown still.

For Thou the last gift art our lost ones leave,
To be our comfort on our upward way;
Love Jesus, Jesus is our only hope,
Adoringly they say.

As shipwrecked sailors grasp an oar, and launch
Upon the billows of a midnight sea,
These fearless souls, embracing Jesus, plunge
Into Eternity:

Then, safely floated to the Home of peace,
Where the bright plumèd angels throng the shore,
Still, still the Name of Jesus those glad hosts
In anthems pour.

Name that the ransomed souls for ever wear,
Gemmed with pure luster on each perfect brow,
Be Thou the radiance of our earthly lives;
Transform us even now.

O Name above all names the most beloved!
Fullest of memories, and of untold peace,
Earnest of all unutterable joys!
Yet, fond heart, cease,

For Jesus is the Name of the High God:
Hushed be thy thoughts, and silently adore!
When thou shalt come to see Him as He is,
Thou shalt know more.

Caroline Maria Noel
The Name of Jesus and Other Poems, 1863