THE DIGGERS.

White Ribbon, Volume 25, Issue 292, 19 October 1919, Page 12

THE DIGGERS.

Oh, men of Hod, we re coming home in ships hy store on score, Our bodies crippled, gash'd, and maimed,.our hearts all sick and sore ; Our haunted souls, our hunted souls are t rying out for Life; Wo want God's Peace, God’s Love, God's Joy m place of man's mad strife. We left your shores strong, lusty boys, with hope and ardour filled; We’re coming back with countless gaps and more than bodies killed: The visions in our minds to day make havoc of the past; Our toitured sleep brings back again war’s withering, wasting blast. The blinded eyes can ne’er behold the beauties of the earth; The shattered lips can not again join in the world’s rude mirth. We’re boys in vears, in suffering men ; we’ve come through shot and shell; We’ve forged a way to peace and home through tires of deepest hell. And now we want the (ireat and Hood, we want the Pu r e and True t)h, ministers of God, we ask, caTl heaven be found through you? We were not plaster saints; ah, no! blaek Sin has seared the soul, But can you tell of One who came to make poor sinners whole ? It is not pealing oigans and spites on lottv heights. It is not architecture and glowing window light*-. For which the Diggers hunger and call on vou to-day; But for the Man of Nazareth who trod our death-strewn way. The blazing sands of Egypt have dimmed our eyes to sec The beauty of a cushioned pew, but crave for Galilee ; The slimy, oozing trenches have blot ted out of mind The intellectual essays, but brought the Christ who’s kind; The scream of whizzing bullets, of bursting bomb and shell. Spoil symphonies in D, hut not the tale the angels tell. The wounded mates around us, the cries of dying boys. Break in upon the anthems with sore discordant noise; The solos mav he faultless bv lingers trained to please.

But Gospel hymns are greater and grander far than these. The “Great W hite Comrade" r*-a» hed us in many a battle fray: Sav, man of God, is He the One vou offer us to day ? We’ie sii k of Drink and Lust and Sin we’re sick in soul and mimi; But, oh, we’ie fiercely longing for the One who’s good and kind. We’ll troop to church in thousands, we’ll crowd each hall and aisle, If you’ll only -.peak of Jesus and win for us His smile. if we knew you really agonised in sweat of biood and prayer lor us, as wo have sweat for you, you’d find the Diggers there. —B. L. Cowie. Littlebourno Crescent, Dunedin.