The poem is by Jean Ingelow, who describes a pair of brothers listening to the parson of the fishing village
As one that pondered now the words
He had been preaching on with new surprise,
And found fresh marvel in their sound, Behold!
Behold! saith He, I stand at the door and knock.
Open the door with shame, if ye have sinned;
If ye be sorry, open it with sighs.
Albeit the place be bare for poverty,
And comfortless for lack of plenishing,
Be not abashed for that, but open it,
And take Him in that comes to sup with thee;
Behold ! He saith, I stand at the door and knock!
Speak, then, O rich and strong:
Open, O happy young, ere yet the hand
Of Him that knocks, wearied at last, forbear;
The patient foot its thankless quest refrain,
The wounded heart for evermore withdraw.
Holman Hunt's picture, 'The Light of the World,' now at Keble College, Oxford, had its influence on the hymn.
Hymn 289. Why should I till to-morrow stay.
Charles Wesley (1).
Short Hymns on Select Passages of Scripture (left in MS.); Works, xiii. 51. 2 Cor. vi. 2. Verses 3 and 6 are here omitted.
Hymn 290. To-day, while it is called to-day.
Charles Wesley (1).
Short Hymns on Select Passages of Scripture (left in MS.); Works, xiii. 122. Heb. iii. 15. Eight lines are omitted.
Hymn 291. Come, let us, who in Christ believe.
Charles Wesley (1).
{{fine|Hymns on God's Everlasting Love, London, 1741; Works, iii. 64. Fourteen verses. Verses I, 12, 13, 14. A little hymn of pure gold is made by omitting ten prosaic verges.
