The Chains That Bind by Delwin Rees Buckner

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 30, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 21.

The Chains That Bind

By Delwin Rees Buckner

A moment contemplate the crouching slave, Who, prostrate, grovels at his master's feet, And waits the sentence it is his to mete; The power to bind or free, condemn or save. A blow — and at the stroke the master gave The serf leaps upward, while their faces meet. The air of liberty is O, so sweet To him who breathes but vapors from the grave.

A noble act it is to break the chains From off the bony ankles of a thrall, Who years has fretted, pined away within His shackles; yet still greater praise one gains Who, using every effort at his call, Emancipates a dying soul from sin.