CHRIST THE DOOR

This poem by Mary M. Redding, is based on an actual incident of one of Dr. George Adam Smith’s Syrian journeys:

A traveler once, when skies were rose and gold

With Syrian sunset, paused beside the fold

Where an Arabian shepherd housed his flock;

Only a circling wall of rough gray rock—

No door, no gate, but just an opening wide

Enough for snowy, huddling sheep to come inside.

“So,” questioned he, “then no wild beasts you dread?”

“Ah, yes, the wolf is near,” the shepherd said.