Via Crucis Via Vera.
The dark'ning- shadows filled the vale,
The way seemed long and drear,
Rough was the track and hard to trace,
And none to guide was near;
And soon my falt'ring steps were stayed,
Two paths before me lay.
Oh, for a friendly hand to aid
And show to me the way!
When lo, a rudely fashioned stone
From out the g'loom appeared,
A moss-grown cross, in days long flown
By pious hands upreared.
It showed a straight and narrow path —
No more my steps would stray —
And doubts had ceased to trouble now
That I had found the way.
'Twas thus when in the wilderness,
I tried to pierce the gloom,
And find a path to that bright land
That lies beyond the tomb.
The Promise of the Book shone forth,
And by its cheering ray
Revealed the Cross of Calvary,
And then I knew the way.
