Everyman’s Hut

Camp News, Volume 2, Issue 87, 29 August 1941, Page 8

Everyman’s Hut

* I met a traveller from an antique land, , Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand, Halk sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mock’d them and the heart that fed; And on the pedestal these words appear: “My name is Ozymandias, King of ' kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!” Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far j away. In these simple yet striking lines, the poet Shelley has given us a vivid picture of a world conqueror, in all the pride of his power, causing a colossal statue to be set up in his honour. Ruthless and brutal, riding rough-shod over friend and foe alike until his ambition was realised, and then to crown his triumph, * the inscription: “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings.” This brings to memory the words of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. Under his rule, Babylon became a world empire, and the great city of Babylon one of the j

world wonders. And as he surveyed the beauties of the city spread before his gaze he exclaimed: “Is not this great Babylon which I have built?” Ozymandias has played his part and passed on and the wreck of his statue is all that remains of his kingdom. Nebuchadnezzar likewise has gone and Babylon has long since become a buried ruin. And over all is the unchanging God of all creation. Man is but as grass before him. As the Psalmist says, it springs up in the morning but in the evening it is dry and withered and the world passeth over it and it is gone. The only kingdom that will endure for all eternity is that one that is founded on. love — the Kingdom of the Son of God, and only those will be partakers of that kingdom who bow to His rule now and acknowledge Him as their Lord and King in the present life. May each one be given grace to surrender to Him while there is time and opportunity.