Richard Watson Gilder

The Celestial Passion. Part 2. 4. Cost

Because Heaven's cost is Hell, and perfect joy
⁠     Hurts as hurts sorrow; and because we win
⁠     Some boon of grace with the dread cost of sin,
⁠     Or suffering born of sin; because the alloy
Of blood but makes the bliss of victory brighter;
     ⁠Because true worth hath surest proof herein,
⁠     That it should be reproached, and called akin
     ⁠To evil things—black making white the whiter;
Because no cost seems great near this—that He
     ⁠Should pay the ransom wherewith we were priced;
⁠     And none could name a darker infamy
Than that a god was spit upon,—enticed
⁠     By those he came to save, to the accursèd tree,—
⁠     For this I know that Christ indeed is Christ.