CHRISMS VERSES

Evening Star, Issue 20053, 19 December 1928, Page 13

CHRISMS VERSES

I KNOW A ROAD I lennw a road in Palestine— A long, strange, winding way That runs and rises to the hills, Then slips down to the bay. The road starts out at Bethlehem, On Judah’s fertile plain, And passes by a manger bare In which a babe has lain. It winds where Jordan’s fertile bank Turns to a stony crest, And far into the wilderness Where One has stood the test. It twists and twines up hill and down, By postern-gate and wall, Through country, village, city, town, Past palace, hut, and stall. It lingers by still Galileo As if to rest awhile; Then hastens to the hills again In one long, curving smile. It listens here, as if to words Its friends, the trees, would say, As, bonding o’er it lovingly, They lift their arms to pray. It hesitates, as if to ask If it should still go on, Then lifts its head to do its task, And runs on straight and strong. It broadens out before the gate, Rests near the olive tree, Then leads into Jerusalem, Where all the world may see. Then past the temple pillars tall It winds in majesty; It seems to have no end at all— Oh, up past Calvary. And on and on, down through the 1 years— On goes this way of ways; It levels out the mountain’s fears pings the yaUey’p praise,:

It does not end in Palestine, it runs tho world around; You need not seek the Holy Land To see its beauty crowned. It is as roughhewn and as hafd To-day as o’er before; You, too, may see tho bleeding feet As they go by your door. It is a sun-baked, stony road, But some who walk it find Tho footprints of a /Traveller, With love upon His mind; With sunshine in the face of Him, With joy in word and way, And strength to share your load if yott Will walk with Him to-day. —Carl Vinton Herron, in the * Christian Century.’