Selected Verse

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21365, 8 March 1941, Page 11

Selected Verse

The Shelter

Lingering near the busy highway where my shelter gave its shade, I was looking at the footprints which the feet of men had made; For I hold that every pathway that the foot of man hath trod, If we only cheer the traveller, is a roadway up to God. For my shelter was completed, and the travellers on the road Daily rested ln Its shelter, sat and tasted of my food. And the joy of giving thrilled me, and the joy of something done, As a runner looks with pleasure on the prize which he has won. Suddenly the shadow lightened and I saw the Master stand; As of yore he stood before me, with a plumb-line in his hand. And he looked along the highway at the travellers on the road. Then he turned and saw my shelter, and the hungry tasting food. “Ye are learned,” he told me kindly, ‘‘labouring under many laws, Yet my loved ones still are hungry; have ye looked to find the cause ? Ye have given,” said the Master, “of the bread by which men live, I have filled the land with plenty; think ye, is it thine to give?” Then he looked adown the pathway leading to the open door, For the path he ever followed was the pathway of the poor. But I started, for before me, standing where the Master stood, Was a man in ragged clothing, asking me to give him food. —S. A. Cook.