All's Well! Part 6

"POLICEMAN X," which appeared first in _Bees in Amber_, was written in 1898. The Epilogue was written in 1914. "Policeman X" is the Kaiser.

"Policeman"--because if he had so chosen he could have a.s.sisted in policing Europe and preserving the peace of the world. "X"--because he was then the unknown quant.i.ty. Now we know him only too well.

THE MEETING-PLACE (A Warning)

I saw my fellows In Poverty Street,-- Bitter and black with life's defeat, Ill-fed, ill-housed, of ills complete.

And I said to myself,-- "_Surely death were sweet To the people who live in Poverty Street._"

I saw my fellows In Market Place,-- Avid and anxious, and hard of face, Sweating their souls in the G.o.dless race.

And I said to myself,-- "_How shall these find grace Who tread Him to death in the Market Place?_"

I saw my fellows In Vanity Fair,-- Revelling, rollicking, debonair, Life all a Gaudy-Show, never a care.

And I said to myself,-- "_Is there place for these In my Lord's well-appointed policies?_"

I saw my fellows In Old Church Row,-- Hot in discussion of things High and Low, Cold to the seething volcano below.

And I said to myself,-- "_The leaven is dead.

The salt has no savour. The Spirit is fled._"

I saw my fellows As men and men,-- The Men of Pain, and the Men of Gain, And the Men who lived in Gallanty-Lane.

And I said to myself,-- "What if those should dare To claim from these others their rightful share?"

I saw them all Where the Cross-Roads meet;-- Vanity Fair, and Poverty Street, And the Mart, and the Church,--when the Red Drums beat, And summoned them all to The Great Court-Leet.

And I cried unto G.o.d,-- "Now grant us Thy grace!"

For that was a terrible Meeting-Place.

VICTORY DAY _An Antic.i.p.ation_

As sure as G.o.d's in His Heaven, As sure as He stands for Right, As sure as the hun this wrong hath done, So surely we win this fight!

Then!-- Then, the visioned eye shall see The great and n.o.ble company, That gathers there from land and sea, From over-land and over-sea, From under-land and under-sea, To celebrate right royally The Day of Victory.

Not alone on that great day, Will the war-worn victors come, To meet our great glad "Welcome Home!"

And a whole world's deep "Well done!"

Not alone! Not alone will they come, To the sound of the pipe and the drum; They will come to their own With the pipe and the drum, With the merry merry tune Of the pipe and the drum;-- But--they--will--not--come--alone!

In their unseen myriads there, Unperceived, but no less there, In the vast of G.o.d's own air, They will come!-- With never a pipe or a drum, All the flower of Christendom, In a silence more majestic,-- They will come! They will come!

The unknown and the known, To meet our deep "Well done!"

And the world-resounding thunders Of our great glad "Welcome Home!"

With their faces all alight, And their brave eyes shining bright, From their glorious martyrdom, They will come!

They will once more all unite With their comrades of the fight, To share the world's delight In the Victory of Right, And the doom--the final doom-- The final, full, and everlasting doom Of brutal Might, They will come!

At the world-convulsing boom Of the treacherous Austrian gun,-- At the all-compelling "Come!"

Of that deadly signal-gun,-- They gauged the peril, and they came.

--Of many a race, and many a name, But all ablaze with one white flame, They tarried not to count the cost, But came.

They came from many a clime and coast,-- The slim of limb, the dark of face, They shouldered eager in the race The st.u.r.dy giants of the frost, And the stalwarts of the sun,-- Britons, Britons, Britons are they!

Britons, every one!

It shall be their life-long boast, That they counted not the cost, But, at the Mother-Country's call, they came.

They came a wrong to right, They came to end the blight Of a vast unG.o.dly might; And by their gallant coming overcame.

Britons, Britons, Britons are they!

Britons, every one!

It shall be their n.o.bler boast,-- It shall spell their endless fame,-- That, regardless of the cost, They won the world for Righteousness, And cleansed it of its shame.

Britons, Britons, Britons are they!

Britons, every one!

And now,--again they come, With merry pipe and drum, Amid the storming cheers, And the grateful-streaming tears, Of this our great, glad, sorrowing Welcome-Home.

They shall every one be there, On the earth or in the air, From the land and from the sea, And from under-land and sea, Not a man shall missing be From the past and present fighting-strength Of that great company.

Those who lived, and those who died, They were one in n.o.ble pride Of desperate endeavour and of duty n.o.bly done; For their lives they risked and gave Very Soul of Life to save, And by their own great valour, and the Grace of G.o.d, they won.

Britons, Britons, Britons are they!-- Britons, every one!

WHEN HE TRIES THE HEARTS OF MEN

As gold is tried in the furnace, _So He tries the hearts of men;_ And the dwale and the dross shall suffer loss, _When He tries the hearts of men._ And the wood, and the hay, and the stubble Shall pa.s.s in the flame away, For gain is loss, and loss is gain, And treasure of earth is poor and vain, _When He tries the hearts of men._

As gold is refined in the furnace, _So He fines the hearts of men._ The purge of the flame doth rid them of shame, _When He tries the hearts of men._ O, better than gold, yea, than much fine gold, _When He tries the hearts of men,_ Are Faith, and Hope, and Truth, and Love, And the Wisdom that cometh from above, _When He tries the hearts of men._

POISON-SEEDS

Is there, in you or me, Seed of that poison-tree Which, in its bitter fruiting, bore Such vintage sore Of red calamity-- Black wine of horror and of Death, And soul-catastrophe?

Search well and see!

Yea--search and see!

And, if there be-- Tear up its roots with zealous care, With deep soul-probing and with prayer, Lest, in the coming years, Again it bear This same dread fruit of blood and tears, And ruth beyond compare.

Each soul that strips it of one evil thing Lifts all the world towards G.o.d's good purposing.

THE WAR-MAKERS

_Who are the Makers of Wars?_ The Kings of the earth.