A woman…who was a sinner…brought an alabaster box of ointment…and began to wash His feet with tears, and wiped them with her hair, and kissed His feet, and anointed them with the ointment.
Luke 7:37–38
Words: Thomas T. Lynch, The Rivulet, third edition, enlarged (London: Longmans, Green, Reader & Dyer, 1868), number 116.
Music: Sweet Hour William B. Bradbury, Golden Chain (New York: 1861) (🔊 pdf nwc).
Come forth with twice-anointed feet,
And head that waits a second crown,
Thou art more living than the love
Of those who gently laid Thee down!
Pain is their life, Thy grave their cross,
They grieve, they sigh, they faint for Thee;
Come forth, and make time’s bitterest loss
The joy of their eternity.
Sinner and saint have loved Thee well;
With ointment pure and purer yet
They have anointed Thee, Thy feet
With heaviest rain of tears were wet;
The sinner wept away her sins,
The saint held cheap her costly gift;
Arise, Thou lover of both, and each
To Heav’n and higher Heaven lift.
Crowned but with thorns, Thy timid friends
Who found Thee where to lay Thy head,
From secret into open love
Arose at once when Thou wert dead;
With blood-anointed brow come forth,
And wear Thy shining second crown;
Then into gentleness shall rise
The world that roughly cast Thee down.