AGAINST THE COLD by Margaret J. Preston.

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 12, 1880

AGAINST THE COLD.

By Margaret J. Preston.

"And Peter stood and warmed himself." The very Christ of whom he bore Such bold, brave witness but a few Sad days agone,—the Christ he knew Had raised from death, one week before, Lazarus of Bethany,—he saw Now in the clutch of Roman law, Dragged midmost o'er the pavement stone, Bound, mocked, forsaken of His own, And—"stood and warmed himself"!

He watched the soldiers rudely strip Away the robe the Marys made, And pluck the inner garment frayed By brutal wrenchings,—marked the lip Shiver, as o'er the flesh laid bare, Blew gusts of chilling midnight air; Yet, by the sight not smitten dead, Above the brazier's flame he spread His hands,—"and warmed himself."

He heard a maid say,—"Here, behold, One of this man's disciples; he Speaks with the speech of Galilee." Ah, then—ah, there, his blood ran cold; And as the leaping blaze rose higher, Among the crowd that girt the fire, With, sharp, reiterate, angry "Nay," He thrust his arms and pressed his way, And crouched, "and warmed himself."

"Yea, thou art one of them:" He heard The charge come back and back again, Tossed from the mouths of jeering men; And as with oaths he flung the word Straight in their teeth, he sudden turned, And ah, that look!—it burned, and burned As if Gehenna's hottest coal Had down into his deepest soul Dropped, while "he warmed himself."

His hands he could no more uphold; Remorse, despair, self-loathing, woe, Tore at his heart; he did not know If it were night,—if it were cold,— He neither looked behind, before, Nor cared, though she who kept the door Said,—"Surely this was he who drew The sword on Malchus; Malchus knew Him, as 'he warmed himself.'"

But prone upon the ground he lay Abject thro' horror, racked with shame, Too stricken to name the Master's name, Remembering, till the dawn of day, How thro' His mystic anguish, he Had mingled with that company Of mockers in the high priest's hall, As one of them, and watched it all, And "stood and warmed himself."

... So is it still!—We skulk afar With scarce the scoffed-at Christ in sight, Nor do the wrong, nor dare the right, Poor trembling cravens that we are! And while our Lord is being betrayed, We lurk among his foes, afraid To own him; yet, like him of old, We comfort us against the cold, And "stand and warm ourselves!" —Margaret J. Preston.