1 Here hangs a man discarded,
a scarecrow hoisted high,
a nonsense pointing nowhere
to all who hurry by.

2 Can such a clown of sorrows
still bring a useful word
when faith and love seem phantoms
and every hope absurd?

3 Yet here is help and comfort
for lives by comfort bound,
when drums of dazzling progress
give strangely hollow sound:

4 Life, emptied of all meaning,
drained out in bleak distress,
can share in broken silence
our deepest emptiness;

5 And love that freely entered
the pit of life's despair,
can name our hidden darkness
and suffer with us there.

6 Christ, in our darkness risen,
help all who long for light
to hold the hand of promise,
till faith receives its sight.