O Hands that were extended upon the awful tree,
Hold up those precious nail prints, and intercede for me.
O Head so deeply pierced with thorns which sharpest be,
Bend low before Thy Father, and intercede for me.
O Body scarred and wounded my sacrifice to be,
Present Thy perfect offering, and intercede for me.
In a passage of one of his epistles, St. Paul speaks of himself as bearing, branded on his body, the marks of Jesus. His allusion probably was to the custom of branding slaves with the initial or some other distinguishing mark of their owner. These brands could not be removed; and wherever the slave went he carried, burnt indelibly in his flesh, these witnesses of his servitude and his ownership.
The marks in himself to which St. Paul referred were the scars, or other lines and impressions, made upon him by what he had endured and suffered in serving and following Christ. He had been beaten with the scourge, and the weals were yet upon his body. He had been stoned, and he bore yet the scars of the bruises. He had suffered shipwreck, and had been exposed to cold and heat and storm, enduring hunger, thirst, and weariness. All these experiences had left their traces in his body. He was no longer the blithe, vigorous, fresh young man who had witnessed Stephen’s martyrdom. He was prematurely old.
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