Hymn For My Brother's Ordination

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

    Christ to the young man said: "Yet one thing more;
        If thou wouldst perfect be,
    Sell all thou hast and give it to the poor,
        And come and follow me!"

    Within this temple Christ again, unseen,
        Those sacred words hath said,
    And his invisible hands to-day have been
        Laid on a young man's head.

    And evermore beside him on his way
        The unseen Christ shall move,
    That he may lean upon his arm and say,
        "Dost thou, dear Lord, approve?"

    Beside him at the marriage feast shall be,
        To make the scene more fair;
    Beside him in the dark Gethsemane
        Of pain and midnight prayer.

    O holy trust!    O endless sense of rest!
        Like the beloved John
    To lay his head upon the Saviour's breast,
        And thus to journey on!