PEACE AND ITS VOICE
In a remarkable poem called "Watchman! What of the Night?" we see this great heart standing sentinel on the walls of the world, watching the midnight skies red with the blaze and glow of carnage:
"Watchman! What of the night?
No light we see;
Our souls are bruised and sickened with the sight
Of this foul crime against humanity.
The Ways are dark—-
'I SEE THE MORNING LIGHT!'
* * * * *
"Beyond the war-clouds and the reddened ways,
I see the promise of the Coming Days!
I see His sun rise, new charged with grace,
Earth's tears to dry and all her woes efface!
Christ lives! Christ loves! Christ rules!
No more shall Might,
Though leagued with all the forces of the Night,
Ride over Right. No more shall Wrong
The world's gross agonies prolong.
Who waits His time shall surely see
The triumph of His Constancy;
When, without let, or bar, or stay,
The coming of His Perfect Day
Shall sweep the Powers of Night away;
And Faith replumed for nobler flight,
And Hope aglow with radiance bright,
And Love in loveliness bedight
SHALL GREET THE MORNING LIGHT."
All's Well.
Then, as is most fair and logical, the poet tells us how we are to build again after peace comes. We must needs know that. The newspapers are full of a certain popular move—and success to it—to rebuild the destroyed cities of France and Belgium. But the rebuilding that the poet speaks of in "The Winnowing" is a deeper thing. It is a spiritual rebuilding without which there is no permanent peace in the world and no permanent safety for the material world.
"How shall we start, Lord, to build life again,
Fairer and sweeter, and freed from its pain?
'Build ye in Me and your building shall be
Builded for Time and Eternity.'"
All's Well.
There is the answer to the world's cry in short, sharp, succinct lines; compact as a biblical phrase; and as meaningful. Hearken it, ye world! Only in Him can the new spiritual world be built for "Time and Eternity." And only to those who so believe and hold shall the world belong henceforth. At least so says our poet:
"To whom shall the world henceforth belong
And who shall go up and possess it?"
which question he himself answers in the same verse:
"To the Men of Good Fame
Who everything claim—
This world and the next—in their Master's great name—
"To these shall the world henceforth belong,
And they shall go up and possess it;
Overmuch, overlong, has the world suffered wrong,
We are here by God's help to redress it."
The Fiery Cross.
And finally in this fight for peace he does not forget prayer, and in "The Prayer Immortal," which is introduced, as are so many of Oxenham's poems, by a phrase from the Bible, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done," he admonishes those who seek peace:
"So—to your knees—And,
with your heart and soul, pray God
That wars may cease,
And earth, by His good will,
Through these rough ways, find peace!"
The Fiery Cross.