WAS IT IN VAIN?

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 203, 14 May 1887, Page 2

WAS IT IN VAIN?

Sitting hy my chamber window 111 the stillness of the gloom. Suddenly a spir-t joined m- from the fniardroo ■ of tho tomb. Was i evil, sin, or devil i *as it truth in naked garb ? Ah ! I know no* ; but it reasoned with its poi e oned-i«TOW barb - "Thou art thinking of thy hiturc. of thy hell, and of its tio,'n- s ! And the Christ and of His churches, with their thous nd, thousand names. Was Ho Christ?" " Ah! .\ o-*, ' I answered, "Tciu'hcr of divinost '-rood : Child-like. God-like, sou Him suffer on the cross for brotherhood. ' '• Nay ! ' the spirit answered. ' Watch Him with tho blood drops on His brow. Yet the life blood of the nuu-tyrs flowcth into 1 ivcrs now ! By His dcath-SHcat, nailed and bleeding, ns He hum; upon the tree. Is the w- rid one step in frcoiom ? Js the Chpisti.in pauper free ? Every nnil that ■ iorred His body should a million souls reclaim; But anoihor iwil is di i\cn when His saints but mouth His name! See Him quiverinir. fainting, djing, lifting wearied c> os above. ll' or His shepherds— gorged nnd bloated~ preach the nlcnit'idc of lo> c! Sec the harlot in the hot-bed of her fevers rick en den - Slave to hunger, leprous passion, lust, aad filth of Christian men ! Was it. wisdom, was it mercy to lay down a Jif - divine For a thousand million sinner*, soothing in pollution's mine ?" " Ah !" I nn&werod, ' (lod is mercy -mercy ever knowoth host. I may doubt the worth of saving till I'm folded to I Lis breast ; And the sceptics niny he children to the God wo mock in vain. For they use rot. half the torture, crucifying Christ again ! " Was it wiso.' the spirit answered, " to bo crucified in vain '. For a saint, may, boasting glory, to a devil turn again." " Ah ! swoet spirit, 1 niny murmur at His saints for lack of good, Brit 'tis swoet. to think and practise, Christlike, for our hrothorhood ; 'Tis a problem for the Master— l will answer nevermore." But tho treason of tho spirit made my soul so sad and soro; For I thought of thorns that piorccdHir. nails, and cross and bloody pain : Were poor sinners worth the ransom 1 Has tho victim died in vain i \V. R. WILTA