Scripture Verse

Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise. Luke 23:43

Introduction

Words: Tho­mas A. La­cey, in the Treasury, 1905.

Music: Old 124th Ge­ne­van Psal­ter, 1551 (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
Thomas A. Lacey
1853–1931

Lyrics

The dy­ing rob­ber raised his ach­ing brow
To claim the dy­ing Lord for com­pa­ny;
And heard, in an­swer to his trem­bling bow,
The pro­mise of the King: Thou—ev­en thou—
Today shalt be in pa­ra­dise with Me.

We, too, the mea­sure of our guilt con­fess,
Knowing Thy mer­cy, Lord, our on­ly plea;
That we, like him, through judg­ment and dis­tress,
For all the weight of our un­wor­thi­ness
May win our way to pa­ra­dise with Thee.

But so be­wil­dered is our fail­ing heart,
So dim the lus­ter of Thy ro­yal­ty,
We hard­ly know Thee, Lord, for what Thou art,
Till we be­gin to take the bet­ter part
And lose our­selves in pa­ra­dise with Thee.

Then lift our eyes, dear Lord, from this poor dross,
To see Thee reign­ing in hu­mi­li­ty,
The King of love; that, wrest­ing gain from loss,
We, too, may climb the lad­der of the cross,
To find our home in pa­ra­dise with Thee.

Poem

The Thief on the Cross

Three crosses rose on Cal­va­ry
Against the iron sky
Each with its living bur­den,
Each with its human cry.
And all the ages watched there,
And there were you and I.

One bore the God in­car­nate,
Reviled by man’s dis­dain,
Who through the woe He suf­fered
For our eternal gain,
With joy of infinite lov­ing
Assuaged His infinite pain.

On one the thief re­pent­ant
Conquered his cruel doom,
Who called at last on Christ and
Saw His glory through the gloom.
For him after the tor­ment,
Souls of the blest made room.

And one the unrepentant bore,
Who his harsh fate defied.
To him, the child of dark­ness,
All mercy was de­nied;
Nailed by his brothers on the cross,
He cursed his God and died.

Ah, Christ, who met in Pa­ra­dise
Him who had eyes to see,
Didst Thou not greet the oth­er
In hell’s black ago­ny?
And if he knew Thy face, Lord,
What did he say to Thee?

Harriet Monroe
You and I, 1914