p. 82 | THESE ARE THEY by Emma Herrick Weed

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 5, 1901

THESE ARE THEY

By Emma Herrick Weed

“These are they which came out of great tribulation.” “They are coming this way!” he said,—the angel who kept the gate,— “They enter the city here. Would you see their cohorts? Wait. Within is a great feast spread, and the air with music stirs; For the King himself shall sit this day with the banqueters.”

The heroes of earth! For these, in their march up the aisles of palm, I would wait: from within came forth the surge of a swelling psalm. At thought of the nearing hosts, I shrank in awesome dread— Chief captains and mighty men, who should pass with their martial tread.

Then, slowly, out of the mists up the way whence I looked to see, With glory along their crests, and the light on their panoply, The warriors, splendor-shod, with whose names Time’s annals ring, Came a band of pilgrims, worn as from years of journeying.

Slowly, with halting steps, they come; their unsandaled feet Are bruised by the jagged stones, are scorched by the desert’s heat; Their faces are white, and lined with vigil and patient pain; Their forms are beaten and marred by the storm and the hurricane;

But the stronger uphold the weak.—and their leader upholds a cross. Impatient, I look away down the slopes where the palm plumes toss; Impatient, I turn to him, the angel who keeps the gate,— “But the heroes? Where are they, for whom you bade me wait?”

For answer, the gate swings wide, and dawn streams out on the night; And that way-worn band pass through, their raiment white as the light. For answer, I hear a voice from the heart of the halos say, While the veiled angel bows: “Earth’s heroes? These are they!”

—Emma Herrick Weed, in N. Y. Observer.