p. 12 | LIKE SIMON OF CYRENE by Frank Crane, D.D.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Mar 13, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 11.

LIKE SIMON OF CYRENE.

By Frank Crane, D.D.

He knows; I do not know; But I know Him! Why must I bear a cross not of my choosing? Why must I stand and breast the blinding arrows Of enemies I went not out to seek? Why must I be a hero, when I only wish To dream and loiter by some peaceful stream? Why must I work at what I hate, for bread, When all my longing is to work for love? Like Simon of Cyrene, I've thrust my face Inquisitive into the throng of life, And circumstance has seized me, and has laid On me the cross I did not ask nor want! I do not know. Only this much I know: The devils cried, "Let us alone!" and perished. The cross is on all others, as on me; Bad men and good; on devils, on God, too; And I must take it up and follow Him, Or fall beneath it, crushed in self-contempt. O Christ! why is Thy cross laid on us all? He knows; I do not know; But I know Him! —Frank Crane, D.D.