<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">Good Friday, A.D. 33</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">Mother</span>, why are people crowding now and staring?</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Child, it is a malefactor goes to His doom,</p><p class="line">To the high hill of Calvary He's faring,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And the people pressing and pushing to make room</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">Lest they miss the sight to come.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Oh, the poor malefactor, heavy is His load!</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Now He falls beneath it and they goad Him on.</p><p class="line">Sure the road to Calvary's a steep up-hill road --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Is there none to help Him with His Cross -- not one?</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">Must He bear it all alone?</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Here is a country boy with business in the city,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Smelling of the cattle's breath and the sweet hay;</p><p class="line">Now they bid him lift the Cross, so they have some pity:</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Child, they fear the malefactor dies on the way</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">And robs them of their play.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Has He no friends then, no father nor mother,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">None to wipe the sweat away nor pity His fate?</p><p class="line">There's a woman weeping and there's none to soothe her:</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Child, it is well the seducer expiate</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">His crimes that are so great.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Mother, did I dream He once bent above me,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">This poor seducer with the thorn-crowned head,</p><p class="line">His hands on my hair and His eyes seemed to love me?</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Suffer little children to come to Me, He said --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">His hair, his brows drip red.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Hurrying through Jerusalem on business or pleasure</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">People hardly pause to see Him go to His death</p><p class="line">Whom they held five days ago more than a King's treasure,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Shouting Hosannas, flinging many a wreath</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">For this Jesus of Nazareth.</p></div></body></html> · Great War