ZYMA VETUS EXPURGETUR.
Purge away the ancient leaven,
Let a paschal joy be given,
For our Lord is risen again.
This the day of better vision,
This the day of vast decision,
By the Word of God to men.
This despoiled Egyptian spoilers,
This set free the Hebrew toilers
From the bonds in which they lay,
Where, in iron furnace fastened,
Tyrants all their labor hastened
In cement and straw and clay.
Now in praise of holy living,
Holy triumph, godlike giving,
Let the free voice sound its strain.
This the day the Lord created,
This our grief has terminated,
Comfort bringing to our pain.
Things to come let law betoken,
Christ shows promises unbroken,
Still appearing all in all.
Through his blood the sword though awful
Blunted droops—our way is lawful,
And the prohibitions fall.
He who gave us cause of laughter,
(Since the rescue followed after)
Glad of heart is Isaac still;
Joseph from the pit is lifted,
As from death our Lord, through rifted
Clouds that veiled the heavenly will.
Thus that serpent-rod, surprising
Malice in its worst devising,
Swallowed all the other rods.
Thus the brazen serpent vying
With the poison, when the dying
Trusted God instead of gods.
Through the jaw, with hook and cable
Christ to seize the foe is able;
On the cockatrice’s den
He, the weanèd child, is sitting,
While afar in fear is flitting
That old enemy of men.
They who laughed at good Elias
Feel the cursing of the pious
Struck by vengeance undeferred;
While King David feigning madness,
And the goat that bears our sadness
Flee as does the sacred bird.
Samson with a jawbone merely
Slays a thousand foes, and clearly
Spurns alliance to their name.
Samson breaking Gaza’s portal,
Bears it off, as life immortal
Bursts the gate of deathly shame.
Thus does Judah’s Lion ever
Burst the bonds that none may sever,
When the third day glimmers on;
At his Father’s voice awaking,
To the Church’s bosom taking
Many a dear and ransomed son.
Jonah stayed when he was flying—
This true Jonah signifying—
Marks a day when safe, through dying,
Christ from depth of earth arose.
Now the cypress blossom brightens,
Now the cluster spreads and heightens,
Now the churchly lily whitens,
Waving over Jewish foes.
Death and life together striving
Hinder not the Christ reviving,
And with him are saints deriving
Resurrection through his blood.
Morning new and full of gladness,
How it cheers our every sadness;
God hath conquered Satan’s madness
In this time of joy and good!
Jesus, victor, who hast given
Life; our Only Way to heaven;
Who by death our death hast shriven,
Bid us to thy feast, nay, even
Grant us faith with which to come.
Living bread, fount unabated,
Vine of truth, with fruit unsated,
Feed thou us thy new-created,
That from death reanimated
By thy grace we gain our home!