Classic Poem

PROLOGUE

Dear fellow-pilgrims on life's toilsome road,
Who know this world is not man's last abode,
I pray you pause a moment on your way,
And learn the simple lessons of our play.
We have no wit to bring you, nothing rare,
In turn of speech or figure passing fair,
But simply that great message from the past,
That God's strong arms around His world are cast,
And that man's life beneath, around, above,
Is compassed with the fulness of God's love.
This little play we call The Key of Life ,
Because in Christ there is an end of strife,
And all the problems that perplex the mind,
In Him alone, can true solution find
When Satan spreads his snares before our feet,
Christ, who once foiled him, is a sure retreat.
When sin has spoilt life's plan and symmetry,
Christ, through His death, can give us pardon free;
And when some grief has darkened all our sky,
Christ weeps with us for those who have to die.
There are no stars with light so far and dim,
That we can thither fly and hide from Him,
No silence in the sunless depths of sea,
But in His presence lies continually,
No hidden regions in the utmost space,
Where God and man cannot meet face to face.
With reverence then, and with a lowly fear,
This simple tale of man's salvation hear,
'Twill give you guidance in perplexing hours;
'Twill give you strength to fight the evil powers,
If Christ be helmsman in the soul's frail bark,
Fear not the sea however wild and dark.