In His Footsteps by C. G. Bellah

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 19, 1916

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 43, No. 37.

In His Footsteps

By C. G. Bellah

THERE is one time above all others when men desire to be at home, and that is when death approaches. At such a time, loved ones will tenderly soften the pillow, and lovingly touch the fevered brow, as no others can. At least a little of the sting is removed by the presence of loved ones, when the "golden bowl" is broken, and the "silver cord" loosed. When the heavy weights of the clock hang near the floor, and the cheeks grow paler, and the eyes brighter, then most of all do we crave the presence of those dear to us.

Yet there was One for whom there was no fit place to be born, no place to live in love and sympathy among His brothers; He was often misunderstood by His own mother, driven out by the members of His own little church at Nazareth; and He died at last of a broken heart, on a bleak hilltop outside the chosen city.

O Thou Blessed One, born in poverty between two oxen, and crucified between two thieves; Thou who didst willingly leave heaven's shining front door for us, to enter earth's dark and dismal back door; who didst gladly come out of a mansion in the glory land, to sojourn in a barn on earth; who wast rejected of men, and treacherously wounded in the house of His friends; who didst grow up, live, labor, and die out of His place,—help us to follow in Thy blessed, blessed footsteps! C. G. BELLAH.