Giant Hours With Poet Preachers | Page 8

a more sunlit
land;"
and,
"Our God establishes his arm And makes the battle sure!"
General William Booth.
He puts the temperance worker in the "Round Table" under the heading,
"King Arthur's Men Have Come Again." He lifts the battle to a high
realm. "To go about redressing human wrongs," as King Arthur's
Knights were sworn to do, would certainly be a most appropriate motto

for the modern Christian temperance worker, and Lindsay is the only
poet acknowledged by the literary world who has sung this Galahad's
praise with keen insight.
But his greatest poem, "The Congo," that poem which has captured the
imagination of the literary world and which is so little known to the
Christian world--where it ought to be known best of all--will give a
glimpse of the new Christian influence on the races. The poet suggests
that it be chanted to the tune of the old hymn, "Hark, ten thousand
harps and voices."
It is a strange poem. It is so new that it is startling, but it has won.
Listen to its strange swing, and see its stranger pictures. Through the
thin veneer of a new civilization, back of the Christianized Negro race,
the poet sees, under the inspiration of a missionary sermon delivered in
a modern church, the race that was:
"Fat black bucks in a wine-barrel room, Barrel-house kings with feet
unstable, Sagged and reeled and pounded on the table, Pounded on the
table, Beat an empty barrel with the handle of a broom, Hard as they
were able, Boom, boom, BOOM With a silk umbrella, and the handle
of a broom, Boomlay, boomlay, boomlay, BOOM Then I had religion,
then I had a vision. I could not turn from their revel in derision. THEN
I SAW THE CONGO CREEPING THROUGH THE BLACK,
CUTTING THROUGH THE FORESTS WITH A GOLDEN
TRACK!"
The Congo.
Then follows as vital, vivid, and vigorous a description as ever was
written by pen, inspired of God, tipped with fire, of the uplift and
redemption of the Negro race, through Jesus Christ.
The "General William Booth" title poem to the second Lindsay book
shook the literary world awake with its perfect interpretation of The
Salvation Army leader. It is a poem to be chanted at first with "Bass
drums beaten loudly" and then "with banjos"; then softly with "sweet
flute music," and finally, as the great General comes face to face with
Christ, with a "Grand chorus of all instruments; tambourines to the
foreground." Running through this poem is the refrain of "Are you
washed in the blood of the Lamb?" and the last lines catch the tender,
yet absolutely unique spirit of the entire poem:
"And when Booth halted by the curb for prayer He saw his Master thro'

the flag-filled air. Christ came gently with a robe and crown For Booth
the soldier, while the throng knealt down. He saw King Jesus. They
were face to face, And he knealt a-weeping in that holy place, Are you
washed in the blood of the Lamb?"
General William Booth.
But one could not get Lindsay to the hearts of folks, one could not
make the picture complete, without putting Lincoln in, any more than
he could make Lindsay complete without putting into these pages "The
Soul of the City Receives the Gift of the Holy Spirit," or "General
William Booth Enters Into Heaven," or "The Congo." Lincoln seems to
be as much a part of Lindsay as he is a part of Springfield. Lindsay and
Lincoln, to those who love both, mean Springfield, and Springfield
means Lincoln and Lindsay. And what Lindsay is trying to do for city,
for village, for town, for the Negro, for every human being, is voiced in
his poem, "Lincoln."
"Would I might rouse the Lincoln in you all, That which is gendered in
the wilderness, From lonely prairies and God's tenderness."
General William Booth.
Let this poem "Heart of God" be the benediction of this chapter on
Lindsay:
"O great heart of God, Once vague and lost to me, Why do I throb with
your throb to-night, In this land, eternity?
"O, little heart of God, Sweet intruding stranger, You are laughing in
my human breast, A Christ-child in a manger.
"Heart, dear heart of God, Beside you now I kneel, Strong heart of faith.
O heart not mine, Where God has set His seal.
"Wild, thundering heart of God, Out of my doubt I come, And my
foolish feet with prophets' feet March with the prophets' drum!"
General William Booth.
[Illustration: JOAQUIN MILLER]

III
JOAQUIN MILLER [Footnote: The quotations from the poems of
Joaquin Miller appearing in this chapter are used by permission of the
Harr Wagner Publishing Company, owners of copyright.]
A STUDY OF HOME, FATHER LOVE, GREAT MOMENTS WITH
JESUS CHRIST,