George MacDonald & James Ensor

George MacDonald: Haste to me, Lord

& James Ensor: Christ Exorcising the Evil Spirit

Haste to me, Lord

by George MacDonald

Haste to me, Lord, when this fool-heart of mine
Begins to gnaw itself with selfish craving;
Or, like a foul thing scarcely worth the saving,
Swoln up with wrath, desireth vengeance fine.
Haste, Lord, to help, when reason favours wrong;
Haste when thy soul, the high-born thing divine,
Is torn by passion’s raving, maniac throng.

Fair freshness of the God-breathed spirit air,
Pass through my soul, and make it strong to love;
Wither with gracious cold what demons dare
Shoot from my hell into my world above;
Let them drop down, like leaves the sun doth sear,
And flutter far into the inane and bare,
Leaving my middle-earth calm, wise, and clear.

*******

George MacDonald: Haste to Me, Lord, from A Book of Strife in the Form of the Diary of an Old Soul (1880).

James Ensor (Belgian, 1860–1949), Christ Exorcising the Evil Spirit, 1921. Color lithograph from the portfolio Scènes de la vie du Christ (Scenes from the Life of Christ).

Taken over from Victoria Emily Jones on https://artandtheology.org

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