Meekly led the way to Jerusalem.
The preparation of that great feast,
The Passover, was begun; and to stem
The crowded throng, from West to East
Beyond its wall, was almost vain.
With heterogeneous life the city
Trembled. Outlying khans and caves again
Were peopled with a class to pity.
Three million souls, all in that time
Were there, in suburb and Jerusalem;
A rangling horde of reek and slime—
For know ye well that now and then
Were two extremes. No assuaging
Moral, and physical agencies with which
To heal and lessen human suffering;
And even a doctor's lance and stitch
Were all, alas, unknown to men.
Slaves the one half, and the other
Monsters. Rome had so far driven
Her cohorts over hearts of mother,
Brother, friend and foe, hearthstones
And shrines, all, all were as nought—
The dead and their reeking bones,
The height of that Rome sought.
What wonder then, the lame and blind,
The leper and the madman came
To feel a touch so sweetly kind
As Christ's—the blessed name?
The preparation of that great feast,
The Passover, was begun; and to stem
The crowded throng, from West to East
Beyond its wall, was almost vain.
With heterogeneous life the city
Trembled. Outlying khans and caves again
Were peopled with a class to pity.
Three million souls, all in that time
Were there, in suburb and Jerusalem;
A rangling horde of reek and slime—
For know ye well that now and then
Were two extremes. No assuaging
Moral, and physical agencies with which
To heal and lessen human suffering;
And even a doctor's lance and stitch
Were all, alas, unknown to men.
Slaves the one half, and the other
Monsters. Rome had so far driven
Her cohorts over hearts of mother,
Brother, friend and foe, hearthstones
And shrines, all, all were as nought—
The dead and their reeking bones,
The height of that Rome sought.
What wonder then, the lame and blind,
The leper and the madman came
To feel a touch so sweetly kind
As Christ's—the blessed name?
—12—
