The Martyred Missionary
Dublin Core
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By sudden sun-stroke, or by slow decay,
War, famine, plague, meek messenger of truth,Wert thou arrested on thy pilgrim way.
"The sultry whirlwind spared thee in its wrath;
The lightning flashed before thee and passed by;
The brooding earthquake paused beneath thy path;The mountain torrent shunn'd thee, or ran dry.
"Thy march was through the savage wilderness;
Thine errand thither, like thy blessed Lord's,
To seek and save the lost, to heal and blessIts blind and lame, diseased, and dying hordes.
"How did the love of Christ, that like a chain,
Drew Christ himself to Bethlehem, from his throne,
And bound him to the cross, thine heart constrain,Thy melting heart, to make that true love known.
"But not to build, was thine appointed part,
Temple where temple never stood before;
Yet was it well the thought was in thine heart,Thou know'st it now, the Lord required no more.
"The wings of darkness round thy tent were spread,
The wild beast's howling broke not thy repose;
The silent stars were watching overhead:Thy friends were nigh thee - nigh thee were thy foes.
"The sun went down upon thine evening prayer,
He rose upon thy finished sacrifice;
The house of God, the gate of heaven was there,Angels and friends had fixed on thee their eyes.
"At midnight, in a moment, open stood
Th' eternal doors, to give thy spirit room;
At morn, the earth had drunk thy guiltless blood -But where, on earth, may now be found thy tomb?
"At rest beneath the ever-shifting sand,
This thine unsculptured epitaph remain,
Till the last trump shall summon sea and land,'To me to live was Christ, to die was gain.'
"And must, with thee, thy slain companions lie,
Unmourned, unsung, forgotten, where they fell?
O for the power, the spirit of prophecy,Their life, their death, the fruits of both to tell!
They took the cross, beneath it they lay down,Woke, and the cross was changed into the crown.
"O'er their last relics, on the spot where gult
Slew sleeping innocence, and hid the crime,
A church of Christ, amidst the deserts built,May gather converts to the end of time:
And there with them, their kindred dust to dust,Await the resurrection of the just."
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