ONLY ONE by Viola Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 28, 1900

“ONLY ONE.”

By Viola Smith

VIOLA SMITH.

A thousand bonfires crowned the hills, A thousand banners waved on high; The cannon spoke in awful tones, And shouts of triumph rent the sky; For there had been a battle won, The message read, at little cost. It was a glorious victory, And only one was lost.

But in a cottage near at hand A woman mourned and wept alone; And little children thronged her knee, And wondered at the mother’s moan. They were too young and innocent To understand what they had lost,— How hard an orphan’s lot may be, How sad and tempest-tossed!

And she, the mother, heeded not The booming cannons’ awful roar; She heard, instead, a well-known voice, Now stilled in death forevermore. She did not mark the joyous throng, Nor see triumphal banners wave. She only saw, through blinding tears, A soldier’s lonely grave.

She saw the ranks in battle stand, The deadly bullet’s cruel flight; It did its awful work too well, It turned her day to darkest night. Through the stern future she must fight Life’s hardest battles all alone. What wonder if she failed to see The glory that was won?

Oh, long ago, while lightnings flamed, And Sinai’s mount was all a-smoke, While list’ning thousands quaked and feared, The voice of God majestic spoke, “Thou shalt not kill,” it loud proclaimed To us, as to that waiting host; And war is murder just the same, Though only one be lost.