THE CHRIST
The good intent of God became the Christ.
And lived on earth—the Living Love of God,
That men might draw to closer touch with heaven,
Since Christ in all the ways of man hath trod.
THE BALLAD OF LOST SOULS
With the thirty pieces of silver,
They bought the Potter's Field;
For none would have the blood-money
And the interest it might yield.
The Place of Blood for the Price of Blood,
And that was meet, I ween,
For there they would bury the dead who died
In frowardness and sin.
And the first man they would bury there
Was Judas Iscariot;
And that was as dreadful a burying
As ever was, I wot.
For the sick earth would not keep him;
Each time it thrust him out,
And they that would have buried him
Stood shuddering round about.
And others they would bury
In that unhallowed spot,
But honest earth would none of them,
Because of Iscariot.
And oh, it was a fell, fell place,
With dead black trees all round,
And a quag that boiled and writhed and coiled
Where had been solid ground.
For every tree that stood there,
And the green grass every blade,
Shrivelled and died on every side,
Whenever the price was paid.