A Christmas Sonnet by William Leighton

Here is a wonderful poem and theological reflection by William Leighton (1841–1869) on the incarnation of Jesus as the infinite God-man at Christmas.

“Great Son of God, but born the son of man”

Great Son of God, but born the son of man,
One subject of a double substance framed:
Wherein nor manhood lost, nor godhead won
But of them both at once one Christ was named.

Before all times begot, in time created,
The Lord of Lords, a servant form retaining,
And yet no former form thereby abated:
In servant’s form, the form of God remaining.

Great Son of God, than whom there is no greater
No not the Father in His great divinity,
As God creator and as man a creature:
(For more and less, agree not in infinity.)

Teach me to know how man by God assumed
Is both, and yet not man by God consumed.

 
William Leighton (1841–1869) was a Scottish poet who died of typhoid fever when he was twenty-eight years old. His family moved to England when he was seven years old. He began writing poetry at a young age and was an active member of several literary societies. A number of his poems were published in local literary papers while he was still living, and several collections of his poems were published in the 1870’s following his death. A complete edition of The Poems of William Leighton was published in 1890. (Source: Dictionary of National Biography/Wikisourse)
 

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