Affliction (II)
The One Death That Swallows All
The speaker begs Christ not to multiply daily afflictions, for His single death on the cross infinitely outweighs any possible human suffering over a long life.
Don't kill me every day, Lord of life—since your one death for me is more than all my deaths can be, even if I, paying in installments, die over every hour of Methuselah's long life.1
The Superiority of Christ's Tears and Sweat
The speaker compares all human tears to Christ's tears and finds them insignificant, and then notes they would only tarnish the precious blood of His Gethsemane agony.
If all human tears were poured into one common drain—sea and brine—what would they all amount to, compared to yours?2 If they were added to yours, they would only discolor your most bloody sweat.3
Christ, All Grief and All Joy
The speaker declares that Christ alone is both his sorrow and his delight, for the cross once and for all pre-paid all his future mourning.
You alone are my grief—Lord, do not hide it. And as you are all my delight, so you are all my pain: your cross, in one act, took up by advance payment all my future mourning.45
Read the original English
KIll me not ev'ry day, Thou Lord of life; since thy one death for me Is more then all my deaths can be, Though I in broken pay Die over each houre of Methusalems stay.
If all mens tears were let Into one common sewer, sea, and brine; What were they all, compar'd to thine? Wherein if they were set, They would discolour thy most bloudie sweat.
Thou art my grief alone, Thou Lord conceal it not: and as thou art All my delight, so all my smart: Thy crosse took up in one, By way of imprest, all my future mone.
Notes
- 1 ↩Herbert's 'broken pay' means payment by installments or partial payments: the speaker's repeated daily dying would still be only fragmented repayment, never equal to Christ's single full death.
- 2 ↩Source 'sewer' means a drainage channel or watercourse, not modern sewage plumbing; rendered 'drain' to keep the low, common receptacle without anachronistic toilet-system overtones.
- 3 ↩'Wherein' points back to Christ's tears ('thine'); human tears mixed into them would stain, not match, the bloody sweat of the Passion.
- 4 ↩Herbert’s imprest is a cash advance or earnest payment; the cross is cast as settling, up front, all the speaker’s later grief.
- 5 ↩smart = sharp pain or suffering; mone = moan, lament, mourning—not modern ‘smart’ or ‘money’.
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