STERRIE A. WELLMAN by Sterrie A. Wellman

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 16, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 24.

STERRIE A. WELLMAN

By Sterrie A. Wellman

Jerusalem.

Jerusalem, thou mighty city of the past, In whom are seen so many marks of time; Jerusalem, whose kingly glory could not last, Because beneath the curse of the Divine; Thou art a sad reminder of thy former self, When strangers then as now ruled in thy land, When Roman soldiers, led by lust for pelf, Marched o’er thy crested hills on every hand.

Dark fell the blot which marked thy glory fade, Dark on the pages of thy record, where In ages past the brighter records made A light of glory ere this blot was there. And as it fell it shrouded all with gloom, Till its fair pages seemed one darkened spot, A place where Christlike glory could not come, Because, tho offered mercy, they “would not.”

That blot, a crime, a crime which for a day Robbed earth of her Redeemer and her King; A crime which made her glory fade away, Her children doomed for’e’er to wandering. And now, as o’er the earth they sadly roam, And journey back and forth from land to land, A stranger still inhabits their old home, Which once this Israel held with mighty hand.

O sad and bitter curse, yet great the need; A nation led by God through trials dark, Still turned from His voice and would not heed, While yet of mercy there remained a spark; A nation which in all its former life Had seen the hand of God ofttimes displayed, Still turned unheeding to a greater strife Against the world’s Redeemer, undismayed!

Jerusalem, thy lot has been a sad one here, One marked by war, and crime, and deep distress. Jerusalem, the Saviour shed full many a tear, Well knowing thou wert doomed to wretchedness. O city sad, disconsolate, at strife, Stripped of thy former glories great and grand! We wait the time when all shall wake to life, To see the heavenly city nigh at hand.

STERRIE A. WELLMAN

Chatham, Ontario.