Mary Magdalene Bearing Tidings of the Resurrection

Then was a task of glory all thine own,
Nobler than e’er the still, small voice assign’d
To lips in awful music making known
The stormy splendours of some prophet’s mind.
“Christ is arisen!”--by thee, to wake mankind,
First from the sepulchre those words were brought!
Thou wert to send the mighty rushing wind
First on its way, with those high tidings fraught--
“Christ is arisen!” Thou, thou, the sin-enthrall’d!
Earth’s outcast, heaven’s own ransom’d one, wert call’d
In human hearts to give that rapture birth:
Oh raised from shame to brightness! there doth lie
The tenderest meaning of His ministry,
Whose undespairing love still own’d the spirit’s worth.