CROWN AFTER CROSS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2252, 29 April 1897, Page 44

CROWN AFTER CROSS.

Down tho long ward passed the angel Death t He held for a while his icy breath As he paused beside a cot Where a woman lay whose fragile form Had bent beneath the cruel storm Of Pain's unflinchiug blast, Which over her head had so often passed. Yet 'neath fiercest blast she murmured not. But patiently, cheerfully, bore her lot, And loved and prayed in that lonely cot. Sweetly she smiled, thro' her bitterest tears-* Sweetly smiled, though for fourteen years The angel Pain had chained her thereShut from her sight God's world so fair. Ever she strove to shed a light, To give iv faith a message bright To the hopelejs ones in Borx-ow's night. All loved and blessed her where anc lay, No earthly hope to shed a ray Or gild for her a future day. Up, up through Suffering's thorny road, Her soul drew nearer to its God, While bent her frame beneath His rod. Till Je3us, in hia hand a crown, Whispered Death to hie him down* Eolc.\se the spirit from the clay, And boar it straight to Him away. Ob, lovingly went death that day, Kissed the clay so cruelly torn, Keleased the spirit sadly worn, And gently bore it to its God, No more to feel the chust'ning rod. Freed now from every touch of paio, She lives with Christ in endless reign, While for the cross that bore her down Bestowed by Christ a fadeless crown. —Marian Campbell KiddUJ* PAhia, Southland, April 1807.