West Virginia freeman. (Parkersburg, W. Va.) 1881-1886, 1884-07-23
THE HOME FOLKS.
HILARITY HoLLENBAcK, Rousekeeper
Stone the WOman-Let the Man
Go Free.

arms,
And blend their low tones with the voice of
streams,
The signing winds, the call of mating birds,
The distant laughter in the reapers' fields,
And gentle footballs, as the camels pass
The streets are silent, for the idle drones
Who bring no honey to the human hive,
But swa IA at corners and at open doors,
Eager for anything to stimulate
The dull naonotony of idle hours,
Have sought the temple where the Saviour
sits,
To calmly criticize His mode of speech,
And hear if He, an obscure Nazarene,
Can fashion ii with such subtleness
AS thrills, men say, the coolest listening
But new the dreamy silentness is DER;
A group CT Scribes and Pharisees appear,
And in they midst wretched woman
moves,
A blot upon the beauty of the day.
Her head is bent in uttermost despair,
Her hands clasped upon her beating
breast,
And burning tears are falling down the
cheeks
Where conscious sin has sent the rushing
blood.
Shame clothes her as a garment, while her
soul
Shoulders within its desecrated shrine,
Stained and unutterably dishonored,
So sad sight, SO loathsomely deformed,
That angels weep and tremble as they gaze.
Her brow is hidden; for ah! never more
Can she lift up her youthful woman's face,
That once was beautiful with innocence,
And raised her vision to the holy skies,
With eyes rejecting their blue purity.
Oh, nevermore, through the long waste of
yeas,
Can she walk upright in the ways of men,
And look the wide world bravely in the face,
Strong in the untouched wilderness of her
life;
Nor taste again the simple joys of home,
The tender sweetnesses of modest ways,
A husbands lips, the touch of infant lips,
The trust of friends, the happy fre-lit hearth,
The little tendril joys that softly cling,
And give their perfume to a clean, sweet life.
1t might have been, 1t never more shall be /!
Sins dark simeon has broken ole her heart
And left it waste and barren. Not for her,
The scented blossoms that the gutleless
pluck,
The,liles waiting for the true and pure.
She wronged the better instincts of her soul,
Chose the black passion -fow'rs of sin and
death,
And stands acursed before God and man.
They hurry onward through the sun-lit
streets
With pittiless, coarse jests and mocking
words.
She is not fit to walk the fruitful earth;
She must be stoned; the law must be fulfill
ed.
But first they'll lead her to this Nazarene,
Whose doctrines are suspicious, strangely
new,
Unpalatable always to Scribe,
Or honest Pharisee who loves the law
Let him pass judgment, and award her
doom;
They say He's mild and merciful; perchance
They'll snare him into breaking Jewish
codes,
And be revenged for all his subtleties.
They reached the temple; in moment
The sinner stands before the Saviour's face.
How wonderful that face, the burning
tongue
Ofseraphim would fail to picture it.
Dlvlnely sweet, unfathonably calm,
Unutterably tender: in the eyes,
Patience SO godlike and compassionate,
A look of Nary round the sacred lip,
That wear sign of WEAKNESS repressed,
AS though pain slept little further back.
How young He seems, and yet He seems not
young,
But grave and gentle, as If many cares
Pressed on an infinitely loving heart
The trembling woman kneels before her
Judge
And clasps her hands upon her guilty face.
Never before seemed purity so pure:
Never before was sin so horrible.
She did not plead, she knelt there clothed in
shame,
An outcast and degraded-weeping knelt,
waiting the words-"The woman must be
stoned"
The crowd draws near to hear what Jesus
says,
And silence steals upon the multitude;
The sunlight falls athwart the temple door
through open doorway signs the fragrant
wind;
The little children patter with soft steps
IN quiet corners, knowing not as yet
Lies tragedy, intense and passionate.
But Jesus speaks; the temple grows more |
hushed
And watching angels thrill withendless love.
Let him. He says, "who knows that he is
pure
cast first the stone at her." The menlook up,
startled little: then thew hung their heads |