I met the good Shepherd

I met the good Shepherd. Edward Caswall* (1814-1878). This is found in The Masque of Mary, and Other Poems (1858), in the section entitled ‘Hymns and Meditative Pieces’. Its four stanzas describe a dramatic encounter between the believer and the suffering Christ. It appeared in the Westminster Hymnal (1912), and is found in MHB and in the Song Book of the Salvation Army (1986). In the latter it is shortened to three stanzas, omitting the powerful stanza 3: ‘Ah, me! How the thorns Have tangled Thy hair, And cruelly riven That forehead so fair! How feebly Thou drawest Thy faltering breath! And lo on Thy face Is the shadow of death!’ The hymn is a remarkable dramatisation of...