Hymn for My Brother's Ordination
Hymn for My Brother's Ordination - context Summary
Composed for a Brother's Ordination
Written for his brother Samuel's ordination, Longfellow's poem frames the ministerial call as a reprise of Christ's injunction to the rich young man: to follow and serve. It presents ordination as a sacred repetition of Christ’s hands laid on the candidate and stresses an ongoing, unseen companionship through celebratory and suffering moments. The final image offers restful intimacy with the Saviour as the ordained man begins his journey.
Read Complete AnalysesChrist 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!
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