LINES SUGGESTED BY CORNFIELD AT SEEING POPPIES IN A MORFA NEVIN. 32 The Ypres Times. supreme authority the one Prince of the Church who was able, from his position as an eye-witness and his knowledge of the cause, to voice a protest in the name of justice and civilisation. When the War came to an end, and when he had seen King Albert's triumphant return, hailed by a people whom nothing had been able to crush, Mgr. Mercier drew back quite simply into the shadow, and took up once again his mission of shepherd of souls. But, though he loved above all else to minister to the poor, the lowly and the weak, he devoted himself nevertheless to the great work of the reunion of the Christian Churches. Like the Primate of the Anglican Church, he realised how much these Christian Churches, by their racial rather than religious rivalries, were weakening their world-work of civilisation and exposing themselves to the attacks of modern ideas and tenets most fatal and pernicious to Christianity. Here again, Christ was made manifest in His priest. Cardinal Mercier presided over the historic meetings at Malines with a breadth of view, a simplicity, a generosity, and a respect for the opinions of others that gave him an irresistible charm and attraction. Then it was that death came to seek him, and he met his end with the same serenity which he had shown all his life, in sorrow as in joy. Everyone will remember the accounts given in the press of his last moments. He died without betraying by a murmur the terrible sufferings he was enduringwith his eyes fixed on the Cross before him, he died in the humble little bedroom of a nursing-home, not so humble, however, as his own room in the Archiepiscopal Palace, which contained only an iron bedstead, with no mattress, only a palliasse that might have belonged to the poorest of his flock he died like a sainthis greatness was not of this world, but above it. A sorrowing Church and a moupoing nation will preserve with pride and devotion the memory of that soul, that beacon of Christian light that God, in His pity for a humanity about to sink in the most terrible of wars, under a wave of horror, set upas was meet and justin the midst of the martyred country. Give me not poppies for forgetfulness But to remind me that the brightest bloom By ruthless fate is oft the earliest shed, And that the brightest of my blooms was killed Or e'er its golden heart was full disclosed. I would not cancel grief and memory, And so forego my joy for Joy and Grief, Offspring of Love, go ever hand in hand, And Love attends them, smiling through her tears. Would I forget the thrill of joy when first I took that precious bundle in my arms. So soft, so all-dependent on my care The dawning of a bright intelligence The pretty ways of childhood, and the growth Of all the traits of pure unselfishness Would I forget the look in those brown eyes. Like the deep waters of a sunlit pool The wealth of sun-kissed curls the native grace In every pose of body and of mind Would I forget the praise that was his meed Amongst the bravest he was counted brave, And died with an amazing cheerfulness. I see him as he waved his last farewell, And smiling passed for ever from my sight. Thee, Morfa, I revisit and the crag.; By him beloved. Before me is the rock Whereon highpoised and stripped he used to stand, Like a young god, before he plunged head-long Into the spumy deep. Is it in vain I dream that here his Spirit may love to come Can Time and Space bind immortality, Restrict its habitation or its will The Spirit hath but to will, and lo! 'tis here. And here all nature speaks to me of him The wavelets whisper shall we see him soon Or rising rave because he does not come, Or silent lie as one who mourns the dead. And Joy and Grief sit by me hand in hand, And Love attends us, smiling through her tears. While I thank God Who gave me such a son. F. M. Lutyens.

HISTORISCHE KRANTEN

The Ypres Times (1921-1936) | 1926 | | pagina 6