PAPERSPAST

Songs and Sermons.

(Bt W. E. Wills.) ' ■ ' ______ ' •' ■ "' '." Perhaps i t may turn out a song 1 , Perha. a turn out a sermon ! — Bv/rns. No. 6. THE WHITE SLAVES OF AUCKLAND. I wandered through fair Auckland town, * One mom, before the early grey ; The moonbeams foil around my path . r And play'd around my lonesome way. '' The streets are silent. ' One and all,' I said, ' are sleeping, or should be ; lhis is a land where freedom reigns, And man is king, right royally !' Alas ! I little knew that men In foetid yard and pent up room Were toiling, weary and forlorn, As slaves who dig themselves a tomb ! But close at hand, our bakers work At houra God said ' They shall not toil ;' ' But then — this is a Christian land, And that was said on Syrian soil ! I see around me wrecks of men, Who work in dens that are but graves ; Whose rayless eyes are cold and dim, Whose ruined lives pronounce them slaves ; Who work at hours their brother slaves In darker lands have never done ;J • . ■ Who cry for—' Liberty for man,' ■ . . The while their own is never won. ■ : And so, in angered mood, I say, • : Don't tell me of your Christian ways ; Our slaves are here — here to our shame — Although we sing in Freedom's praise ! There is no need, if men were wise, For midnight labour ; if so, why ? God made the Univeise by day, At night, He laid His labour by ! ' Custom,' you say, ' demands that bread Be warm and new, by early morn.' Custom' be cursed. Let all men true Arise, and curse it in their scorn ! ■'• * : Where are our leaders— where the men ■ '- Who should stand forth against this wrong ifj I hear them preaching Love and Peace, * ; And praising God, with prayer and song. -;A Come down, I say, from pulpit stair ; . ; I'll show to you a Christian slave „ From midnight till the eve of day. ■'.-,■:■ Come, see yourselves, if you are brave. .''i But if you're false, still preach away ' -; About milleniutns, far or near ; -S The whilst men starve, and work to starve, -' With the milleriums dark and drear ; . .3 And we could stay this wrong to-day, : ':'d Were we but true ; but false and cold, ' i We do but preach the * love of God,' . -.-I And worship still ' The God of Gold !' ' > * * # # * ; '-i I saw a woman, pale and wan, ■"*."■ ! Bend o'er her work, one midnight lone ; '■ "."■"£ The stars above sang songs of love . X? To Him who saw her from His throne. /$ I wonder'd then (forgive, I pray, > ,i| Thou great, all-seeing, loving God !) ;$ I wonder'd then where God could be, -i And why so heavy falls His rod ! >G, Why should a frail, poor woman toil ? With breaking heart arid aching brain, i With sobbing children, wanting bread, *• i' Still crying to their God in vain ? }{■ Why should this be, and God be just? .; Ah me ! The answer is divine. ,' ' The rich are thoughtless, so 'tia hard For them to reach this heaven of mine !' ■ Perhaps 'tis so, yet still the poor . : Are toiling on in want and sin ; i And whilst this earth is hell to them, ■ How can they have Thy heaven within ? ' They toil to earn their scanty pay i All through the day, half through the night i Yet God hath said (and shall He lie?) ' The poor are precious in my sight.' * -.'; O ! come, ye leaders, be ye wise ; j --,-; O ! come, ye pastors, be ye true ; ; i Don't preach of Love, denounce the false, /I_l Before God's anger fall on you ! 7*^|j Step down, and meet your fellow men, ' .4 And be their leaders, true and strong ; : Vf For ' .Right ' shall be a stepping-stone : t That leads to God, from off the wrong ! ; ,- ; l| Step down, I say, and fight this wrong, •.'■s And meet this devil face to face ; ,>j And men may then have faita in God, .$ When they have felt His wondrous grace ! ! | Ah ! there are slaves in Auckland town ; ,; : ''fi As helpless they as slaves can be ; • -'ili Their fetters may be Christian gyves, 1l And we may boast that we are free ! , 'S Step down, 1 say, from high estate, „. 1? And I will show you reeking graves— " ' Where wretched men and women toil, ' •' And live and die as Christian slaveß ! ; >

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