The voice of the cross of Calvary is being heard this day of war as it
has never been heard before. The world is resonant with its message.
Every soldier, every nation, every home, every mother and father and
child and wife who has suffered because of this war, shall henceforth
understand the Christ and his cross the better. All through this
writer's interpretations of the war we find the cross to the fore. To
him the cross symbolizes the war. This war is the cross in a deep and
abiding sense. In "Through the Valley" he says:
"And there of His radiant company,
Full many a one I see,
Who has won through the Valley of Shadows
To the larger liberty.
Even there in the grace of the heavenly place,
It is joy to meet mine own,
And to know that not one but has valiantly won,
By the way of the Cross, his crown."
The Vision Splendid.
Thank God for that hope! Thank God for that word!
In "The Ballad of Jim Baxter" this same thought is more vividly and
strongly set forth. It is the story of one type of German cruelty of
which we have heard in the war dispatches several times and that have
been confirmed on the spot; the story of the Germans nailing men to
crosses. Jim Baxter suffered this experience:
"When Jim came to, he found himself
Nailed to a cross of wood,
Just like the Christs you find out there
On every country road.
"He wondered dully if he'd died,
And so, become a Christ;
'Perhaps,' he thought, 'all men are Christs
When they are crucified.'"
The Vision Splendid.
And in this homely lad's homely way of putting his cruel experience who
knows but that there may be such truth as yet we cannot see in the dark
chaos of war?