::R1346 : page 168::

THE DEAREST NAME

If Jesus from our faith to-day
Were stricken, and we knew
A Godless creed must meet our need—
That nothing else were true;
If Jesus from our heart were cast,
From pages to be read,
What word, in all the realms of thought,
Would answer us instead?

If Jesus, ‘midst the mists of time,
Were lost, and we could know
He never died, our crucified,
What could the new creed show
To take his place, to vibrate through
The prostrate human mind,
To give the race a standing place,
A hope for human kind?

If Jesus from our faith to-day
Were stricken, who could trace
Another word the world hath heard
To ever take its place?
Could ever frame a sound so sweet?
In all the realm of art,
Who yet hath shown a single tone
So priceless to the heart? —G. Klingle.

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— December, 1891 —