The Globe-republican. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1889-1910, 1894-04-13


those who read its pages within the shad
ow OF the presence of the Son of Man
The original conception of Christ com
ing to Chicago reached me, like most O,
my religio-philOsOphical notions, through
the poetry of James Russell Lowell. The
short poem which he styled a parable
always seems to me to sum up in page
the vital essence of Christ's teachings
1t is as it were a new chapter of the Cos
pei OF St. John. done into English by the
American pOet-seer of the nineteenth
century. IquOte it here as the best ex-
PLANTATION of the title of this book.
Said Christ our Lord, 81 will go and see
How the men, My brothers, believe in me. -
He passed not again through the gate of
birth.
But made Himself known to the children
of earth.
Then said the chief priests, and rulers and
kings,
Go to. let us welcome with pOmp and state
He who alone is mighty and great
With carpets of gold the ground they spread
Wherever the Son of Man should tread,
And in palace chambers lofty and rare
They lodged Him, and served him with
kingly fare.
Great organs sursed through archie. dim
Their jubilant floods in praise of Him;
And in church, and palace, and judgement
hall
He saw His image high over all.
But still, wherever His steps they led,
The Lord in sorrow bent down his head,
And from under heavy foundation stones
The Son of Mary heard bitter groans.
And in church, palace and judgement-halI
He marked great assures that rent the wall,
And open wider and yet more wide.
!As the living foundation heaved and sighed.
"Have ye founded your thrones and affairs,
then
On the bodies and souls of living men?
And think ye that building shall endure
Which shelters the noble and brushes the
poor?
with gates of silver and bars of gold
Ye have fenced My sheep from the Fathers
fold;
have heard the dropping of their tears
In Heaven these eighteen hundred years"
so Lord and Master. not ours the guilt;
We build but as our fathers built:
Behold Thine images, how they stand,
Sovereign and sole, through all our land.
''Our task is hard. with sword and flame
To hold Thy earth forever the same,
And with sharp crooks of steel to keep,
Still, as Thou leftest them, Thy sheep"
Then Christ sought out an artisan,
lOw-browed stunted haggard man;
And motherless gill, whose fingers thin
Pushed from her family want and sin.
These set He in the midst of them,
And as they drew back their garments hem
For fear of deflement. 40, here,'' said He,
"The images ye have made of me-"
AS this poem suggested the title. so
has inspired every page in this book.
The dominant idea which Lowell in
listed upon is the truth which. more
han any other, is needed to inspire and
'ivify our impotent, limp and ineffec-
i've conception of Christianity. How we
'elievc in Christ is shown not by what
We say about Him, nOl by the temples
which we build in His honor, nor by the
lymns which we sing in His praise. but
" the extent to which we succeed in
estOrins in man the lost image of God.
The tramp is Christ's brother, the harlOt
S Christ's sister. These are the images
Which we have made of Christ. AS the
trength of Il chain is tested by its
weakest link, so tie extent of our failure
o save the least of these, His brethren.
nay be illustrated by The actual condition
f those who are lost.
Whenever this idea Isl clearly and
rmly grasped, when the condition
+ our fellow citizens Is recognized as
be test of the measure of our faith in
'hrist. the religious aspect of civic
Olitics acquires new and supreme ira
ortance. For the improvement of the
ot OF the least of these, Christ's brethren
he assistance of the municipal authority
) Indispensable. The law must be in
oked. if only as the schoolmaster, to
ring men to Christ. Before we can
lake men divine, we must cast out the
evils who are brutalizing them out of
very human semblance. But this can
OF be accomplished excepting by the |
Sc of means. which can only be welded
y the City Council. Hence, as it used |
} be said of old time that all roads lead |
Rome. so the mole attentively we
Judy the way out of our social quagmire,
he more clearly will it be discerned that |
II roads lead to the City Hall. Thus it |
as come to pass that this little volume.
egun with the simple object of recall
g the conception of the Man Christ |
esus. has developed into an attempt to
lustrate how living faith in the Citizen
hrist would lead directly to the civic |
nd social regeneration of Chicago.
WILLIAM T. STEAD.
Eearly .Risers. Early Risers. Early