



Produced by Al Haines










"ALL'S WELL!"


BY

JOHN OXENHAM



AUTHOR OF "BEES IN AMBER," ETC.




NEW YORK

GEORGE H.  DORAN COMPANY




COPYRIGHT, 1916,

BY GEORGE H.  DORAN COMPANY




  TO

  MY SON HUGO

  2nd LIEUT.  ARGYLL AND SUTHERLAND HIGHLANDERS


  TO

  ALL HIS COMRADES IN ARMS
  ON LAND AND ON SEA

  AND TO

  ALL SORELY-TRIED HEARTS
  AT HOME AND ELSEWHERE

  _THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED_

  IN PROFOUNDEST ADMIRATION,
  IN MOST LOVING SYMPATHY,
  AND IN PERFECT ASSURANCE
  THAT SINCE GOD IS,
  RIGHT MUST WIN
  AND THE FUTURE WILL BE
  BETTER THAN THE PAST




FOREWORD

For those who were chiefly in my heart when these verses came to me
from time to time--our men and boys at the Front, and those they leave
behind them in grievous sorrow and anxiety at home--my little message
is that, so far as they are concerned--"ALL'S WELL!"

Those who have so nobly responded to the Call, and those who, with
quiet faces and breaking hearts, have so bravely bidden them "God
speed!"--with these, All is truly Well, for they are equally giving
their best to what, in this case, we most of us devoutly believe to be
the service of God and humanity.

War is red horror.  But, better war than the utter crushing-out of
liberty and civilisation under the heel of Prussian or _any other_
militarism.

Germany has avowedly outmarched Christianity and left it in the rear,
along with its outclassed guns and higher ideals of, say, 1870, its
honour, its humanity, and all the other lumber, useless to an
absolutely materialistic people whose only object is to win the world
even at the price of its soul.

The world is witnessing with abhorrence the results, and, we may surely
hope, learning therefrom The Final Lesson for its own future guidance.

The war-cloud still hangs over us--as I write, but, grim as it is,
there are not lacking gleams of its silver linings.  If war brings out
the very worst in human nature it offers opportunity also for the
display of the very best.  And, thank God, proofs of this are not
wanting among us, and it is better to let one's thought range the light
rather than the darkness.

What the future holds for us no man may safely say.  Mighty changes
without a doubt.  May they all be for the better!  But if that is to be
it must be the work of every one amongst us.  In this, as in everything
else, each one of us helps or hinders, makes or mars.

If, in some of these verses, I have endeavoured to strike a note of
warning, it is because the times, and the times that are coming, call
for it.  May it be heeded!

That the end of the present world-strife must and will mark also the
end of the most monstrous tyranny and the most hideous conception of
"Kultur" the world has ever seen, no man for one moment doubts.

But that is not an end but a beginning.  Unless on the ashes of the
past we build to nobler purpose, all our gallant dead will have been
thrown away, all this gigantic effort, with all its inevitable horror
and loss, will have been in vain.

It rests with each one among us to say that that shall not be,--that
the future shall repair the past,--that out of this holocaust of death
shall come new life.

It behoves every one of us, each in his and her own sphere, and each in
his and her own way, to strive with heart and soul for that mighty end.

JOHN OXENHAM.




CONTENTS


PART ONE: "ALL'S WELL!"

  GOD IS
  WATCHMAN!  WHAT OF THE NIGHT?
  FOR THE MEN AT THE FRONT
  IN TIME OF NEED
  CHRISTS ALL!
  THE CROSS STILL STANDS!
  WHERE ARE YOU SLEEPING TO-NIGHT, MY LAD?
  BE QUIET!
  TO YOU WHO HAVE LOST
  LORD, SAVE THEIR SOULS ALIVE!
  THE ALABASTER BOX
  WHITE BROTHER
  A LITTLE TE DEUM FOR THESE TIMES
  THY WILL BE DONE!
  DIES IRAE--DIES PACIS
  JUDGMENT DAY
  THE HIGH THINGS
  THE EMPTY CHAIR
  ROAD-MATES
  ALPHA--OMEGA
  HAIL!--AND FAREWELL!
  A SILENT TE DEUM
  THE NAMELESS GRAVES
  BLINDED!
  SAID THE WOUNDED ONE:----
  OUR SHARE
  POLICEMAN X.--EPILOGUE, 1914
  THE MEETING-PLACE
  VICTORY DAY
  WHEN HE TRIES THE HEARTS OF MEN
  POISON-SEEDS
  THE WAR-MAKERS
  IS LIFE WORTH LIVING?
  GOD'S HANDWRITING


PART TWO: THE KING'S HIGH WAY

  THE KING'S HIGH WAY
  THE WAYS
  AD FINEM
  EVENING BRINGS US HOME
  THE REAPER
  NO MAN GOETH ALONE.
  ROSEMARY
  EASTER SUNDAY, 1916
  THE CHILD OF THE MAID
  WASTED?
  SHORTENED LIVES
  LAGGARD SPRING
  LONELY BROTHER
  COMFORT YE!
  S. ELIZABETH'S LEPER
  VOX CLAMANTIS
  FLORA'S BIT
  RED BREAST
  OUR HEARTS FOR YOU
  THE BURDENED ASS
  WINNERS OR LOSERS?
  CHRIST AT THE BAR
  MY BROTHER'S KEEPER?
  A TELEPHONE MESSAGE
  THE STARS' ACCUSAL
  NO PEACE BUT A RIGHT PEACE
  IN CHURCH.  1916.
  TE DEUM
  THROUGH ME ONLY
  PRINCE OF PEACE
  THE WINNOWING
  TO THIS END

  ALL'S WELL!




  PART ONE: "ALL'S WELL!"


  GOD IS

      God is;
      God sees;
      God loves;
      God knows.
    And Right is Right;
    And Right is Might.
  In the full ripeness of His Time,
  All these His vast prepotencies
  Shall round their grace-work to the prime
  Of full accomplishment,
  And we shall see the plan sublime
  Of His beneficent intent.
  Live on in hope!
  Press on in faith!
  Love conquers all things,
  Even Death.




  WATCHMAN!  WHAT OF THE NIGHT?

  Watchman!  What of the night?
   No light we see,--
    Our souls are bruised and sickened with the sight
    Of this foul crime against humanity.
    The Ways are dark----
           "I SEE THE MORNING LIGHT!"

    --The Ways are dark;
    Faith folds her wings; and Hope, in piteous plight,
    Has dimmed her radiant lamp to feeblest spark.
    Love bleeding lies----
           "I SEE THE MORNING LIGHT!"

    --Love bleeding lies,
    Struck down by this grim fury of despight,
    Which once again her Master crucifies.
    He dies again----
           "I SEE THE MORNING LIGHT!"

    --He dies again,
    By evil slain!  Who died for man's respite
    By man's insensate rage again is slain.
    O woful sight!----
           "I SEE THE MORNING LIGHT!

    --Beyond the war-clouds and the reddened ways,
    I see the Promise of the Coming Days!
    I see His Sun arise, new-charged with grace
    Earth's tears to dry and all her woes efface!
    Christ lives!  Christ loves!  Christ rules!
    No more shall Might,
    Though leagued with all the Forces of the Night,
    Ride over Right.  No more shall Wrong
    The world's gross agonies prolong.
    Who waits His Time shall surely see
    The triumph of His Constancy;--
    When, without let, or bar, or stay,
    The coming of His Perfect Day
    Shall sweep the Powers of Night away;--
      And Faith, replumed for nobler flight,
      And Hope, aglow with radiance bright,
      And Love, in loveliness bedight,
                SHALL GREET THE MORNING LIGHT!"





  FOR THE MEN AT THE FRONT

  Lord God of Hosts, whose mighty hand
  Dominion holds on sea and land,
  In Peace and War Thy Will we see
  Shaping the larger liberty.
  Nations may rise and nations fall,
  Thy Changeless Purpose rules them all.

  When Death flies swift on wave or field,
  Be Thou a sure defence and shield!
  Console and succour those who fall,
  And help and hearten each and all!
  O, hear a people's prayers for those
  Who fearless face their country's foes!

  For those who weak and broken lie,
  In weariness and agony--
  Great Healer, to their beds of pain
  Come, touch, and make them whole again!
  O, hear a people's prayers, and bless
  Thy servants in their hour of stress!

[Five million copies of this hymn have been sold and the profits given
to the various Funds for the Wounded.  It is now being sung all round
the world.]

  For those to whom the call shall come
  We pray Thy tender welcome home.
  The toil, the bitterness, all past,
  We trust them to Thy Love at last.
   O, hear a people's prayers for all
   Who, nobly striving, nobly fall!

  To every stricken heart and home,
  O, come!  In tenderest pity, come!
  To anxious souls who wait in fear,
  Be Thou most wonderfully near!
   And hear a people's prayers, for faith
   To quicken life and conquer death!

  For those who minister and heal,
  And spend themselves, their skill, their zeal--
  Renew their hearts with Christ-like faith,
  And guard them from disease and death.
   And in Thine own good time, Lord, send
   Thy Peace on earth till Time shall end!




  IN TIME OF NEED

  Better than I,
  Thou knowest, Lord,
  All my necessity,
  And with a word
  Thou canst it all supply.
  Help other is there none
  Save Thee alone;
  Without Thee I'm undone.
  And so, to Thee I cry,--
  O, be Thou nigh!
  For, better far than I,
  Thou knowest, Lord,
  All my necessity.




  CHRIST'S ALL!

  _Our Boys Who Have Gone to the Front_


(_"Be christs!"--was one of W.  T.  Stead's favourite sayings.  Not "Be
like Christ!"--but--"Be christs!"  And he used the word no doubt in its
original meaning,--anointed, ordained, chosen.  As such we, whose boys
have gone to the Front, think of them.  For they have gone, most of
them, from a simple, high sense of duty, and in many cases under direst
feeling of personal repulsion against the whole ghastly business.  They
have sacrificed everything, knowing full well that many of them will
never return to us._)


  Ye are all christs in this your self-surrender,--
  True sons of God in seeking not your own.
  Yours now the hardships,--yours shall be the splendour
  Of the Great Triumph and THE KING'S "Well done!"

  Yours these rough Calvaries of high endeavour,--
  Flame of the trench, and foam of wintry seas.
  Nor Pain, nor Death, nor aught that is can sever
  You from the Love that bears you on His knees.

  Yes, you are christs, if less at times your seeming.--
  Christ walks the earth in many a simple guise.
  We know you christs, when, in your souls' redeeming,
  The Christ-light blazes in your steadfast eyes.

  Here--or hereafter, you shall see it ended,--
  This mighty work to which your souls are set.
  If from beyond--then, with the vision splendid,
  You shall smile back and never know regret.

  Or soon, or late, for each--the Life Immortal!
  And not for us to choose the How or When.
  Or late, or soon,--what matter?--since the Portal
  Leads but to glories passing mortal ken.

  O Lads!  Dear Lads!  Our christs of God's anointing!
  Press on in hope!  Your faith and courage prove!
  Pass--by these High Ways of the Lord's appointing!
  You cannot pass beyond our boundless love.




THE CROSS STILL STANDS!

()"In the evening I went for a walk to a village lately shelled by
German heavy guns.  Their effect was awful--ghastly.  It was impossible
to imagine the amount of damage done until one really saw it.  The
church was terrible too.  The spire was sticking upside down in the
ground a short distance from the door.  The church itself was a mass of
debris.  Scarcely anything was left unhit.  In the churchyard again the
destruction was terrific--tombstones thrown all over the place.  But
the most noticeable thing of all was that the three Crucifixes--one
inside and two outside--were untouched!  How they can have avoided the
shelling is quite beyond me.  It was a wonderful sight though an awful
one.  There were holes in the churchyard about fifteen feet
across."--From a letter from my boy at the Front._)

  The churchyard stones all blasted into shreds,
  The dead re-slain within their lowly beds,--
       THE CROSS STILL STANDS!

  His holy ground all cratered and crevassed,
  All flailed to fragments by the fiery blast,--
          THE CROSS STILL STANDS!

  His church a blackened ruin, scarce one stone
  Left on another,--yet, untouched alone,--
            THE CROSS STILL STANDS!

  His shrines o'erthrown, His altars desecrate,
  His priests the victims of a pagan hate,--
            THE CROSS STILL STANDS!

  'Mid all the horrors of the reddened ways,
  The thund'rous nights, the dark and dreadful days,--
            THE CROSS STILL STANDS!

        *      *      *      *      *

  And,'mid the chaos of the Deadlier Strife,--
  A Church at odds with its own self and life,--
            HIS CROSS STILL STANDS!

  Faith folds her wings, and Hope at times grows dim;
  The world goes wandering away from Him;--
            HIS CROSS STILL STANDS!

  Love, with the lifted hands and thorn-crowned head,
  Still conquers Death, though life itself be fled;--
            HIS CROSS STILL STANDS!

  Yes,--Love triumphant stands, and stands for more,
  In our great need, than e'er it stood before!
            HIS CROSS STILL STANDS!




  WHERE ARE YOU SLEEPING TO-NIGHT, MY LAD?

  Where are you sleeping to-night, My Lad,
  Above-ground--or below?
  The last we heard you were up at the front,
  Holding a trench and bearing the brunt;--
      But--that was a week ago.

  Ay!--that was a week ago, Dear Lad,
  And a week is a long, long time,
  When a second's enough, in the thick of the strife,
  To sever the thread of the bravest life,
      And end it in its prime.

  Oh, a week is long when so little's enough
  To send a man below.
  It may be that while we named your name
  The bullet sped and the quick end came,--
      And the rest we shall never know.

  But this we know, Dear Lad,--all's well
  With the man who