December 6, 2009 - March 12, 2024

Victus!

after “Invictus” by William Earnest Henley

"... for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost …"

Luke 19:10

Safe in the Light that covers me,

far from the pit of Hell’s black hole,

I thank the one true God that He

has conquered my rebellious soul.

Under the doom of God’s pure stance

I fled and cursed His name aloud.

Yet Christ pursued, He bore my lance.

To He Who bled my head is bowed!

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

loomed once the horror of the shade;

yet God stands guardian of the years,

and death shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait His gate,

how charged with punishments His scroll,

He is the Master of my fate;

He is the Saviour of my soul.

In Sunday School this morning (Dec. 6, 2009), during his excellent series on Revelation, Don Symons used William Ernest Henley's poem, "Invictus" as an illustration of the hopelessness of a life that has rejected God. I was moved to write a poem from my own perspective as a Christian, showing the hopefulness of a life that has accepted God in response.

Through the many hours of editing the many revisions of "Victus!" that followed I have tried to joyfully portray the Christian's hope while maintaining the form and flow of Henley's original.