Classic Poem

" The waves went chanting low along the beach;
The scented south wind flitted idly by,
And I sat listening to his affluent speech,
That waited no reply.

" But when, in mocking words, he dared to speak
Of Him who is of my soul's life a part,
I felt the hot blood ebbing from my cheek
To my indignant heart.

" " Friend, have you well considered this?" I said;
" Though words are sometimes little more than sound,
We should be wary how we idly tread
On consecrated ground.

" " That Christ, our Lord, was pure and good and wise
Above all other men, none will deny.
This being granted, how could He devise
And propagate a lie?

" " If He were not, in essence, God and man,
Not what His lips declared Himself to be,
Tell me, O sage, O sophist, if you can,
Whence? Wherefore? What was He?

" " Determine what He was by what He did;
Let all His words and works bear witness; wrest
Proof from His foes, that nothing may be hid
From truth's severest test.

" " And if the tree He planted bear or bore
Poisonous blossoms and unwholesome fruit,
Fair on the surface, rotten at the core,
Dig up the baneful root.

" " If the unfailing fountain He unsealed,
Like the Dead Sea, is bitter to the taste;
If men, by therein bathing, are not healed;
If barren wild and waste

" " Are not refreshed and gladdened by its flow;
If in the desert sands and solitude
It make not fruitful trees to bloom and grow,
Then is the source not good.

" " Demons and devils, by His presence awed,
Trembled and hastened to obey His will,
Nature beheld her Maker and her God,
And winds and waves were still.

" " Go, follow him to Bethany a-near,
Where Martha met Him by the way, and cried
In bitter anguish, " Lord, hadst thou been here,
My brother had not died! "

" " Go with Him to the sepulchre wherein
Four days and nights His friend beloved had slept,
And see humanity, unstained by sin,
Sorrowing when Jesus wept.

" " But when, at His command, a tremor ran
Through death's cold heart, and that insensate clod
Arose, came forth a living, breathing man;
Behold the Omnific God!"