comes true.--

_Was there no peace in Bethlehem?_--
Yes. There was Love in one poor Inn;
And, while His wings were over them,
They heard those deeper songs begin.--

_What songs were they? What songs were they?
Did stars of shrapnel shed their light?_--
O, little child, I have lost the way.
I cannot find that Inn tonight.--

_Is there no peace, then, anywhere?_--
Perhaps, where some poor soldier lies
With all his wounds in front, out there.--
_You weep?_--He had your innocent eyes.--

_Then is it true that Christ's a slave,
Whom all these wrongs can never rouse?_--
They said it. But His anger drave
The money-changers from His House.--

_Yet He forgave and turned away._--
Yes, unto seventy times and seven.
But they forget. He comes one day
In power, among the clouds of heaven.--

_Then Roland rings?_--Yes, little son!
With iron hammers they dare not scorn,
Roland is breaking them, gun by gun,
Roland is ringing. Christ is born.

Born and re-born; for though the Christ we knew
On earth be dead for ever, who shall kill
The Eternal Christ whose law is in our hearts,
Christ, who in this dark hour descends to hell,
And ascends into heaven, and sits beside
The right hand of the Father. If for men
This law be dead, it lives for children still.
Children that men have butchered see His face,
Rest in His arms, and strike our mockery dumb.
So shall the trumpet of the law resound
Through all the ages, telling of that child
Whose outstretched arms in Belgium speak for God.

They crucified a Man of old,
The thorns are shrivelled on His brow.
Prophet or fool or God, behold,
They crucify Thy children now.
They doubted evil, doubted good,
And the eternal heavens as well,
Behold, the iron and the blood,
The visible handiwork of Hell.

Fast to the cross they found it there,
They found it in the village street,
A naked child, with sunkissed hair.
The nails were through its hands and feet.
For Christ was dead, yes, Christ was dead!
O Lamb of God, O little one,
I kneel before your cross instead
And the same shadow veils the sun....

And the same shadow veils the sun....

But you, O land, O beautiful land of Freedom,
Hold fast the faith which made and keeps you great.
With you, with