Concerning Jesus by George MacDonald — Read

I. If thou hadst been a sculptor, what a race / Of forms divine had thenceforth filled the land! / Methinks I see thee, glorious workman, stand, / Striking a marble window through blind space -- / Thy face's reflex on the coming face, / As dawns the stone to statue 'neath thy hand -- / Body obedient to its soul's command, / Which is thy thought, informing it with grace! / So had it been. But God, who quickeneth clay, / Nor turneth it to marble -- maketh eyes, / Not shadowy hollows, where no sunbeams play -- / Would mould his loftiest thought in human guise: / Thou didst appear, walking unknown abroad, / God's living sculpture, all-informed of God.

II. If one should say, "Lo, there thy statue! take / Possession, sculptor; now inherit it; / Go forth upon the earth in likeness fit; / As with a trumpet-cry at morning, wake / The sleeping nations; with light's terror, shake / The slumber from their hearts, that, where they sit, / They leap straight up, aghast, as at a pit / Gaping beneath; " I hear him answer make: / "Alas for me, I cannot nor would dare / Inform what I revered as I did trace! / Who would be fool that he like fool might fare, / With feeble spirit mocking the enorm / Strength on his forehead! " Thou, God's thought thy form, / Didst live the large significance of thy face.