(I have the kind permission of the author, a scholarly and much-respected member of our Corps, to insert the following poem which appeared in "The British Weekly" and one of the Aberdeen papers.)
THE FACE OF DEATH.
(Dedicated to Lieutenant George Davidson.)
We shall not be the men we were before,
No, never while we draw this mortal breath:
For we have probed existence to the core,
And looked upon the very Face of Death.
Upon our famous collier, "River Clyde,"
We sat as men who wait the summons dread.
Brave soldiers fell, defenceless, at our side,
We, too, might soon be numbered with the dead.
With fateful frequency the shells did burst
Around and near the members of our Corps:
Within our hearts we asked, "Who'll be the first
To converse with his comrades never more?"
O never, never from our memory's page
Shall be erased these moments of despair:
An hour seemed an interminable age,
But, in His mercy, God our lives did spare.
We care not what the worldly wise may say,
We owe deliverance to the God of Heaven,
Whose Power Omnipotent the worlds obey,
'Gainst whose decrees mankind in vain hath striven.
Had He but chosen that our hour had come,
No scheming had availed our lives to save:
'Twas not the hour to call our spirits home,
The Lord must take, as 'twas the Lord that gave.
And not in vain were we to death brought nigh,
[58] For He whose presence came our hearts so near
Hath taught us we can ne'er His Will defy,
But evermore should live in reverent Fear.