Fer I was cold an' hungry!
They gave me grub an' bed
After I kneeled there with them
An' many prayers was said.
An' so fergive me, Jesus,
I didn't mean no harm—
An' outside it was zero,
An' inside it was warm. . . .
Yes, I was cold an' hungry,—
An', O Thou Crucified,
Thou friend of all the Lowly,
Fergive the lie I lied!
The Call of the Carpenter[1]
By Bouck White
(American Congregational clergyman, born 1874; imprisoned for protesting in a church against the Colorado massacres)
Jesus held that self-respect required of the rich young man that he refuse to accept too long a handicap over his fellows in the race of life, and start as near as may be from the same mark with them. But he went also a step further. He exacted of the young man that he de-class himself. "Come, follow me." This was the staggerer. To stay in his own set and invest his fortune in works of charity, would have been comparatively easy. Philanthropy has been fashionable in every age. Charity takes the insurrectionary edge off of poverty. Therefore
- ↑ By permission of Doubleday, Page & Co.
