CHRISTINA ROSSETTI
Christina Rossetti’s faith was always derived from the Bible. In 1979 Nilda Jimenez published The Bible and the poetry of Christina Rossetti. Selling at £65 it showed at length how Rossetti’s poetry was derived from Scripture. Take for example one of my favourite Rossetti poems, Up-hill – can you see a Biblical context?
Does the road wind up-hill all the way?
Yes, to the very end.
Will the day’s journey take the whole long day?
From morn to night, my friend.
But is there for the night a resting-place?
A roof for when the slow dark hours begin.
May not the darkness hide it from my face?
You cannot miss that inn.
Shall I meet other wayfarers at night?
Those who have gone before.
Then must I knock or call when just in sight?
They will not keep you standing at that door.
Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?
Of labour you shall find the sum.
Will there be beds for me and all who seek?
Yes, beds for all who come.
Christina Rossetti is famous for two Christmas carols, which are sung every Christmas all over the world. But there is one hymn which has survived, which we don’t sing at the moment, that has clear Scriptural content. It’s called None other Lamb.
None other lamb, none other Name,
None other hope in heaven or earth or sea
None other hiding place from guilt and shame
None beside Thee.
This lovely hymn expresses her single-minded determination in her pursuit of God. May it be so with us also.
Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894) is one of the most influential of all English women poets. Christians would be all the poorer if we didn’t have her lovely carols to sing at Christmas. Her poem, In the bleak midwinter is one of our best loved Christmas carols. In it we find Rossetti’s sincere Biblical belief in the incarnation of Christ, and it is expressed so clearly that no one could misunderstand.
In the bleak midwinter, a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.
It always reminds me of a time I visited a local nursery school to do their morning assembly. I told a story about Jesus and sang a few choruses. At the end the kids went off to their classes and the head came to me to thank me for my help. She said there was just one thing; she always referred to Jesus as the Son of God, never as God.
The head obviously didn’t have Christina Rossetti’s faith. Do you? The whole point of Jesus being God in the flesh is that only God could pay the price for our sin. Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, came to seek and to save that which was lost. That is you and me.
My favourite carol is Christina Rossetti’s little-sung Love came down at Christmas.
Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, Love divine,
Worship we our Jesus…
Again we see in Rossetti’s words her strong evangelical, Bible-believing faith. Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, is to be worshipped. Do you?
Christina Rossetti, although she lived to the ripe old age (for that time) of 64, did not know good health, nor good circumstances. But even though her circumstances were humble, her sincere response to Jesus dying on the cross for her sins was
What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb.
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can, I give Him: give my heart.
May each of us know that desire in our hearts at Christmas.
STAINCLIFFE BAPTIST CHURCH
A Bible-believing fellowship in West Yorkshire, UK
Motto text for 2010: "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline" (2 Timothy 1: 7 -NIV)
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