Page:The poems of Richard Watson Gilder, Gilder, 1908.djvu/81

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HOLY LAND
53

Should pay the ransom wherewith we were priced;
And none could name a darker infamy
Than that a god was spit upon,—enticed
By those he came to save, to the accursèd tree,—
For this I know that Christ indeed is Christ.


THE SONG OF A HEATHEN

(SOJOURNING IN GALILEE, A. D. 32)

I

If Jesus Christ is a man,—
And only a man,—I say
That of all mankind I cleave to him,
And to him will I cleave alway.


II

If Jesus Christ is a God,—
And the only God,—I swear
I will follow Him through heaven and hell,
The earth, the sea, and the air!


HOLY LAND

This is the earth he walked on; not alone
That Asian country keeps the sacred stain;
Ah, not alone the far Judæan plain,
Mountain and river! Lo, the sun that shone
On him, shines now on us; when day is gone
The moon of Galilee comes forth again
And lights our path as his; an endless chain
Of years and sorrows makes the round world one.
The air we breathe, he breathed—the very air
That took the mold and music of his high

And godlike speech. Since then shall mortal dare