AT NAIN

Luke 7:11-17

James M. Speers

"Weep not."

Such love was in the Master's voice
That, strangely comforted, the woman must
Have ceased her sobbing. He came then "and touched
The bier" and simply bade him rise who lay
So still thereon—as one might rouse a friend
From dreaming. That was all.

But when the throng
Beheld the marvel, they may well have stared,
Stricken with awe, not knowing what to think.
Then certainly their awe, or fear, was merged
With joy, and they were glorifying God.

What did the Master bring to that sad group
Which wrought so great a change? And turned the grief
To gladness, and despair to joyful praise?
He brought a love so like the Love divine
It could not let the sorrowing pass by
Uncomforted, unhealed; a sense of life
So Godlike it would not allow the boast
Of death to go unchallenged, undestroyed.
To him, God was the one and only Life,
And death a shadow that must disappear
In the clear shining of the Christ. And there
Before the people, he was proving this.
Small wonder, then, that great rejoicing filled
The little city's gate and echoed through
The countryside!

Yet two there must have been
Who lifted not their voices with the rest;
Whose hearts were singing praise no words could form.
Stalwart and strong, a son clasped tenderly
A mother, overjoyed, who wept anew—
Unheeded tears of gratitude and love.

James M. Speers

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