The Christ

Our Boys Who Have Gone to the Front


("Be christs!"--was one of W.    T.    Stead's favourite sayings.    Not "Be like Christ!"--but--"Be christs!"    And he used the word no doubt in its original meaning,--anointed, ordained, chosen.    As such we, whose boys have gone to the Front, think of them.    For they have gone, most of them, from a simple, high sense of duty, and in many cases under direst feeling of personal repulsion against the whole ghastly business.    They have sacrificed everything, knowing full well that many of them will never return to us.)


Ye are all christs in this your self-surrender,--
True sons of God in seeking not your own.
Yours now the hardships,--yours shall be the splendour
Of the Great Triumph and THE KING'S "Well done!"

Yours these ro...

O, Prince of Life, Thy Life hath tuned
All life to sweeter, loftier grace!
Life's common rounds have wider bounds
Since Thou hast trod life's common ways.

O, Heart of Love! Thy Tenderness
Still runs through life's remotest vein;
And lust and greed and soulless creed
Shall never rule the world again.

O Life of Love!--The Good Intent
Of God to man made evident,--
All down the years, despite men's fears,
Thy Power is still omnipotent.

O Life! O Love! O Living Word!--
Rent Vail, revealing God to man,--
Help, Lord! Lest I should crucify,
By thought or deed, Thy Love again.

I faced a future all unknown,
No opening could I see,
I heard without the night wind moan,
The ways were dark to me,--
"I cannot face it all alone
O be Thou near to me!"

I had done sums, and sums, and sums,
Inside my aching head.
I'd tried in vain to pierce the glooms
That lay so thick ahead.
But two and two will not make five,
Nor will do when I'm dead.

And then I thought of Him who fed
Five thousand hungry men,
With five small casual loaves of bread,--
Would he were here again!--
Dear God! hast Thou still miracles
For the troubled sons of men?

He has, He will, He worketh still,
In ways most wonderful.
He drew me from the miry clay,
He filled my cup quite full.
And while my heart can speak I'll tell
His lov...

Better in bitterest agony to lie,
Before Thy throne,
Than through much increase to be lifted up on high,
And stand alone.

Better by one sweet soul, constant and true,
To be beloved,
Than all the kingdoms of delight to trample through,
Unloved, unloved.

Yet best--the need that broke me at Thy feet,
In voiceless prayer,
And cast my chastened heart, a sacrifice complete,
Upon Thy care.

For all the world is nought, and less than nought,
Compared with this,--
That my dear Lord, with His own life, my ransom bought,
And I am His.

As It was in the Beginning,--
Is Now,--
And...?

Anno Domini I.

    *            *            *            *            *

"No room!
No room!
The Inn is full,
Yea--overfull.
No room have we
for such as ye--
Poor folk of Galilee,
Pass on! Pass on!"

"Nay then!--
Your charity
Will ne'er deny
Some corner mean,
Where she may lie unseen.
For see!--
Her time is nigh."

"Alack! And she
So young and fair!
Place have we none;
And yet--how bid ye gone?
Stay then!--out there
Among the beasts
Ye may find room,
And eke a truss
To lie upon."


Anno Domini 1913, etc., etc.

    *            *            *            *            *

"No room!<...

O Thou who standest both for God and Man,
O King of Kings, who wore no earthly crown,
O Prince of Peace, unto Thy feet we come,
                And lay our burden down.

The weight had grown beyond our strength to bear,
Thy Love alone the woful thrall can break,
Thy Love, reborn into this world of care,
                Alone can life remake.

How shall we turn to good this weight of ill?
How of our sorrows build anew to Thee?
"Of your own selves ye cannot stand or build,--
                Only through Me,--through Me!"

O, turn once more to Thee the hearts of men,
Work through the leaven of our grief and pain,
Let not these agonies be all in vain,
                Come, dwell with us again!

The world has nailed itself unto its cross;
O...