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Title: It Was the Road to Jericho

Author: Annie F. Johnston

Illustrator: John R. Neill

Release date: August 9, 2012 [eBook #40462]
Most recently updated: November 3, 2019

Language: English

Credits: Produced by David Edwards, Emmy and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IT WAS THE ROAD TO JERICHO ***

It was the
Road to Jericho

Inside front facing

[Pg 3]
[Pg 4]

Man on donky carrying wounded man

It was decoration
the Road
to Jericho

By decoration Annie decoration
Fellows Johnston



decoration Author of decoration The
Little Colonel·
The Desert of
Waiting·
Etc.
decoration

ILLUSTRATED BY JOHN R NEILL

NEW YORK
BRITTON PUBLISHING COMPANY
decoration                decoration

flower







Copyright
1919
by
Annie
Fellows
Johnston

flower with plane flying above
angry looking man holding a long staff

It Was the
Road to
Jericho



















It was the road to Jericho,
And brave indeed the man
Who went alone and waited not
To join the caravan.








 








For robber hoards swooped down the cliffs
Like eagles on their prey,
And mercy was not known to them,
Theirs but to kill and slay.



















 

robber on cliff

 








Along the road to Jericho
A man went riding by,
He heard a groan of mortal pain,
He heard a piercing cry.




















 

Man on donkey

 








He got him down from off his beast,
He found the one who bled,
The thieves had bruised and beaten him
And left him well nigh dead























 








(The Levite and the priest had passed,
The calls to them were vain).
He bound his wounds. With oil and wine
He eased the grevious pain.























 








Then to the inn he carried him
And paid the keeper's price,
As one who does a deed for love,
Nor counts it sacrifice.























 








Lo, as he passed upon his way,
His robe it showed a stain—
Two red marks on his white sleeve, where
The bleeding head had lain.























 








One, made in pity when he stooped
To lift the wounded up,
The other, when in love he bent
To offer him the cup.




















 

Samaritan looking down on man in bed

 








Two red, red lines which made a cross,
And marked him as the man
Whose name is, till the end of time
"The good Samaritan."




















 


Part II

Soldiers behind barbed wire fence

 



















The World pressed toward its Jericho,
The goal of its desire—
Its marts, its pleasures and its shrines
Its dreams of great empire.








 








A hoard of gold it bore along
To barter and to buy.
But on the road, by thieves beset,
It, too, was left to die.























 








The Son of God came down that way
To succour and to save,
To bind its wounds, to heal its sin
To lift it from the grave.























 








Lo! He too, went upon His way
When He had paid the price.
Marked by the red red lines that make
The Cross of Sacrifice.




















 

Jesus among crosses

 








Where all the woe of all the world
Upon His heart had lain
And all the sin of earth pressed sore
There gleamed that double stain.























 








And now we cannot name His name
Who is the Lord of Heaven,
Without a thought of that symbol
By love and pity given.























 








Now onward to our Jericho
We press with bated breath.
For evil grows the way, and dark.
On every hand stalks death.




















 


Part III

Man with staff

 



















The robber hoards that strip and slay
Take more than gold, forsooth,
They kill our holiest of Hopes—
They take all Love—all Youth!








 








They smite the mother and the maid—
The babe that cries unfed,
And little children, sore afraid
Sob in the night for bread




















 

Soldier looking in window at mother and child

 








Oh, who shall staunch such world-wide woe—
Such universe of pain?
And who has oil and wine enough?
And must they cry in vain?




















 

Nurse and dog with Red Cross symbol in sky

 








Nay! On the road to Jericho
There be a million now,
Who bear Christ's pity in their hearts,
His sign upon their brow.























 








And millions more shall follow them
To bind and to restore.
Till all the highway is made safe
And war shall be no more.























 








Now God give grace to all who hear
And may His love suffice
To blaze upon each heart each day
The Cross of Sacrifice























 

Two vultures sitting on the back of a German helmet

 

back facing pages, camels marching in a row

Transcriber's Note:

Obvious punctuation errors repaired.

The original text spelled "grievous" as "grevious." This was retained so as to not change the poem's meter.

The original text had the contraction for "it is" (it's) in place of every possessive "its." This was corrected.