LOVE:—that sweet goddess of mercy Who holds the whole world in her arms, Once sought for a symbol, whose viewing Would prove to all peoples her charms; She searched in the mists of the morning, She reached in the deeps of the sea, And she swept the cerulean heavens To find if such figure could be. In the snow-turret mountains she hunted, She sought in the full of the moon, And she questioned the stars, but they never Could give her such wonderful boon, She read of the Ages their glory, Where the lights of Humanity gleamed, But not until Calvary's borning Came the picture of thoughts she had dreamed. There she found on that hill in the desert, (A desert of hearts, not of sands,) The emblem for which she was looking, The Figure of Love for @3all@1 lands, The Cross of the transfigured Saviour All stained from the wounds as He bled; And lo; the Creator had answered, He gave her this symbol of red. |