The Unwarned by Robert Bruce Thacher

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 6, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 18.

The Unwarned

By Robert Bruce Thacher

By Robert Bruce Thacher

He stood bare-bodied, save a breechen clout, And through blear eyes surveyed his plot. Without A semblance of the image that began In Adam's mold—a man, and not a man.

A swart-skinned type, crook-limbed and shallow-brained, Calloused of hand and heart, and custom-stained; His outlook on great life but meanly small; His likelihood of using—none at all.

But there he is, and millions of his kind Must bend beast bodies to the killing grind; But work, and food, and sleep, and jot of play Suffice for every day and every day.

You urge this son of gross simplicity With quick but kindly hand to feel and see— He snaps resentfully, as tho you stole His life. And yet—and yet he has a soul.

Aye, there he stays, where all his fathers stayed, Bold face to fearful doom, yet unafraid; Unwarned of danger, unprepared for fate, Serenely dense and brutish—obstinate. Great God of Job and Jacob, grant us free Patience with man, and victory with Thee! Embolden us to pluck the fiery brands, Altho they scorch severe the saving hands.