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CHRISTIAN NATIONS

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 24, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 4.

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CHRISTIAN NATIONS.

By Frances Bartlett

[By Frances Bartlett, in Boston Evening Transcript.]
Look ye forth, ye Christian nations, o'er the old earth's lands afar, From the south sky to the north sky, once ablaze with Bethlehem's star, From the east sea to the west sea—war and threatenings of war, And the Cross high over all!
Ye have wept the blinded heathen bowing down to wood and stone; Ye have thanked the God who made ye that His truth was to ye shown; Ye have builded altars to Him, over blood-stained shrines downthrown, With the Cross high over all!
In the place of Him who suffered, for the world's sin to atone, Ye have made of gold an idol, reared for it a golden throne; Ye shall see its feet are molded of rude clay—when all is known, For the Cross is over all!
For the voice that on Golgotha naught but love and pity spake, Tho a brow and hands were bleeding, and a heart with anguish brake; Hark! the thunder of your cannon, 'neath whose wrath your brothers quake; And the Cross high over all!
Of the love wherewith He loved ye, ye have forged a sword of flame, And ye smite all souls who thwart ye with the vengeance of the same; And ye do it (God forgive ye!), for the honor of His name, And the Cross high over all!
Do ye think the lengthening centuries have made null Love's grave commands? Do ye think the tramp of armies drowns the voice of His commands? Or your cannons' crash the weeping that is rising from the lands, With the Cross high over all?
Nay, His golden scales are poised, and within your hearts are laid; And your creeds are blown, like dust wreaths; by your deeds your lives are weighed. Heed ye, lest ye be found wanting, spite of all the prayers ye've prayed, With the Cross high over all!
Toward His judgment-seat eternal tread ye all life's sacred way; Who the conquerors, who the conquered, He alone can truly say: By the love ye bear your brothers shall He judge ye all, one day, With the Cross high over all!