The
Church Went Walking With The World
The
Church and the world walked far apart on the
changing shores of time,
The world was
singing a giddy tune, the Church a hymn sublime;
"Come, give
me your hand,"said the merry world."and
walk with me this way.
" But the
good Church hid her snowy hands and solomnly
answered,"Nay,
I will not give
you my hand at all, and I will not walk with you,
your ways are
the ways that lead to death; and your words are
all untrue."
"Nay, walk
with me but a little space," said the world
with a timely air;
"the road I
walk is a pleasant road' and the sun shines
always there;
your path is
thorny, rough and rude, but mine is broad and
plain.
My way is paved
with flowers and dews, and yours with tears and
pain.
The sky to me is
always blue, no want no toil I know;
The sky above
you is always dark and your lot is a lot of woe.
There is room
enough for you and me to travel side by side."
Half shyly, the
church approached the world and gave him her
hands of snow
and the old
world grasped it and walked away, saying in
accents low,
"Your dress
is too simple to please my taste, I will give you
pearls to wear,
Rich velvets,
and silks for your graceful form, and diamonds to
deck your hair."
The Church
looked down at her plain white robe and then at
the dazzling world,
and blushed as
she saw his handsome lips with a smile
contemptuous curled.
"I will
change my dress for a costlier one" said the
Church with a smile of grace;
then her pure
white garments drifted away, and the world gave
in their place,
Beautiful satins
and shinning silks, Roses and gems and costly
pearls;
While over her
forehead her bright hair fell, crisped in a
thousand curls.
"Your house
is too plain," said the proud old world,"I'll
build you one like mine,
with walls of
marble and towers of gold, and furniture ever so
fine."
 
So he built her
a costly and beautiful house, most splendid it
was to behold;
Her sons and her
beautiful daughters dwelt there, gleaming in
purple and gold.
Rich fairs and
shows in the halls were held, and the world and
his children were there.
Laughter and
music and feasts were heard in the place that was
meant for prayer.
There were
cushioned seats for the rich and the gay, to sit
in their pomp and pride.
But the poor who
were clad in shabby array, sat meekly down
outside.
"You give
too much to the poor," said the world,
"Far more than you ought to do;"
"If they
are in need of shelter and food, why need it
trouble you?"
"Go, take
your money and buy rich robes, buy horses and
carriages fine;
buy pearls and
jewels, and dainty food, buy the rarest and
costliest wine."
"My
children, they dote on all these things and if
you their love would win;
You must do as
they do and walk in the ways that they are
walking in."
So the poor were
turned from her door in scorn, and she heard not
the orphans cry,
But she drew her
beautiful robes aside as the widows went weeping
by.
Then sons of the
world and the sons of the church walked closely,
hand and heart,
And only the
Master who knoweth all, could tell the two apart.
Then the Church
sat down at her ease and said,"I am rich and
my goods increase.
I have need of
nothing or ought to do, but to laugh and dance
and feast."
The sly world
heard and he laughed in his sleeve, and mockingly
said aside,
"The Church
is fallen, the beautiful Church and her shame is
her boasts and her pride."
Then the Angel
drew near to the mercy seat, and whispered in
sighs her name,
Then the loud
anthems of rapture were hushed and heads were
covered in shame.
And a voice was
heard at last by the Church, from Him who sits on
the throne;
"I know thy
works, and how thou hast said, "I am rich,"
and hast not known,
that thou art
naked, poor and blind and wretched before my face,
Therefore from
my presence cast I thee out,
and blot thy
name from it's place"
By..Matilda C.
Edwards
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