The cross once seen

From “The Progress of Error” by William Cowper

But if the wanderer his mistake discern,

Judge his own ways, and sigh for a return,

Bewilder’d once, must he bewail his loss

For ever and for ever? No–the cross!

There and there only (though the deist rave,

And atheist, if Earth bear so base a slave);

There and there only is the power to save.

There no delusive hope invites despair;

No mockery meets you, no deception there.

The spells and charms, that blinded you before,

All vanish there, and fascinate no more.

I am no preacher, let this hint suffice–

The cross once seen is death to every vice;

Else He that hung there suffer’d all his pain,

Bled, groan’d, and agonised, and died, in vain.