Only through Me! ... Love's Might, all might transcending, Alone can draw the poison-fangs of Hate. Yours the beginning!--Mine a nobler ending,-- Peace upon Earth, and Man regenerate!
Only through Me can come the great awaking; Wrong cannot right the wrongs that Wrong hath done; Only through Me, all other gods forsaking, Can ye attain the heights that must be won.
Only through Me shall Victory be sounded; Only through Me can Right wield righteous sword; Only through Me shall Peace be surely founded; Only through Me! ... _Then bid Me to the Board!_"
_Can we not rise to such great height of glory? Shall this vast sorrow spend itself in vain? Shall future ages tell the woful story,-- "Christ by His own was crucified again"?_
The nations are in the proving; Each day is Judgment Day; And the peoples He finds wanting Shall pass--by the Shadowy Way.
The Greatest Day that ever dawned,-- It was a Winter's Morn.
The Finest Temple ever built Was a Shed where a Babe was born.
The Sweetest Robes by woman wrought Were the Swaths by the Baby worn.
And the Fairest Hair the world has seen, --Those Locks that were never shorn.
The Noblest Crown man ever wore,-- It was the Plaited Thorn.
The Grandest Death man ever died,-- It was the Death of Scorn.
The Sorest Grief by woman known Was the Mother-Maid's forlorn.
The Deepest Sorrows e'er endured Were by The Outcast borne.
The Truest Heart the world e'er broke Was the Heart by man's sins torn.
Wherever is an empty chair-- Lord, be Thou there! And fill it--like an answered prayer-- With grace of fragrant thought, and rare Sweet memories of him whose place Thou takest for a little space!-- --With thought of that heroical Great heart that sprang to Duty's call; --With thought of all the best in him, That Time shall have no power to dim; --With thought of Duty nobly done, And High Eternal Welfare won.
Think! Would you wish that he had stayed, When all the rest The Call obeyed? --That thought of self had held in thrall His soul, and shrunk it mean and small?
Nay, rather thank the Lord that he Rose to such height of chivalry; --That, with the need, his loyal soul Swung like a needle to its pole; --That, setting duty first, he went At once, as to a sacrament.