THE DEAD TO THE LIVING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1480, 2 December 1915, Page 4

THE DEAD TO THE LIVING.

Quare tristis es, anima mea ? (Wherefore are thou sad, my soul ?) Dear one, I stand beside thee !

Dost .thou not mark me here ? Dove, I am bending o’r thee—-* Counting each falling tear ! Mother, whose son hath left thee — Wife, with the heart of stone — Woman of many sorrows — Peace ! thou art not alone !

Do ! all my days I quested, Deeming the wit of man ; Fashioned for comprehending, The First, the Final, Plan. Dear one ! the blow that fell’d me, Marking this earth-life’s close ; Quicken’d true Dife within me, Do, I, the Dead arose !

Open, it lay before me — God-written, fateful page ; Christ ! now I comprehend Thee ! Buddha ! thou wast a sage ! Men of the East, all hear me ; Men of the West, I Guaranty, that ye sought for ; Do ! I have died : I live !

Comrades, who fell around me, Bear ye the message home ; Unto those waiting dear ones, Whisper “The Dight is come !” Stand ye before them, radiant; Bid them no more to mourn, Into their stricken darkness Pour ye the Holy Dawn. Comrade of distant Indus — Seek ye thy dark-ey’d wife ; Greet her, unmaim’d, uushatter'd ; Tell her that Death is Dife, Comrade of France, God speed thee Comrade in weal, In woe — Comrade, dear English comrade. Thou, too, hast lov’d once—go !

Space doth no more enmesjh me, Gone is my grosser part; Love ! I am speeding, speeding Home to thee, faithful heart ! God ! how I questioned, doubted, Witting not that the way^ Up to this new, this true Life, Was barr’d by gates of clay. Mother, whose son hath left thee--Wife, with the heart of stone — Woman of many sorrows— Peace ! thou art not alone ! Christ, and the Buddha taught it (Blind have I been, and worse!) How there are lives unending, Cycling the Universe. Dear one, ’tis true ! Behold me ! Dost thou not mark me here ? Love, I am bending o’r thee, Counting each falling tear ! God ! she doth not behold me ! Heeds not my seeking hand— Death is the only passport ? Master! . . . I understand ! —Sax Rohmer.