Collected Works (Vol. III)

) WHY JESUS WEPT What follows ts strictly by request in the interest of “healthy optimism.” So far my pen has touched with vivid truth The constant story of the eternal struggle Of age and sense with flatulence and youth. Now—-see the venal poet start to juggle ! Young ladies, you desire to see a comedy ! ‘The poet’s master pen shall twist the river Of song into a simple to-and-from eddy, And you shall laugh where once you feared to shiver. So listen to the happy termination Of this apparently so sad relation ! Twill suit your rosy dreams to admiration ! But, be the gatepost witness ! it is rot. Still, if I hide my face with due decorum Behind a silken kerchief in the forum, And laugh aloud—at home— At the silliness of Rome, You'll forgive me, will you not? SCENE XIilI.! The Meeting-House of the Brethren Gathered Together To The Name Of The Lord Jesus, sub-section Anti-Ravenite of the Exclusive section. They are of course Anti-Stewart, and sound on the Ramsgate Question, while observing an armed neu- trality in the matter of Mr. Kelly’s action.” In the midst a table with a loaf and a bottle: also, by their own account, Jesus Christ. Forms, varnished yellow, around it, them, and (I suppose) Him. On one of them is a blackboard with the notice in white paint: 1 This scene, with the exception of the in- troduction of Mr. Chesterton, and (of course) Sir Percy and Molly, is an accurate description of the ‘‘meeting” at Streatham. ‘The inci- dents and style are authentic. 2 Themselves must be consulted for elucida- tion of these historic controversies. Outsiders, who merely noticed the horripilation of the Universe, but saw no obvious reason, have the key in their hands, and may pursue the research on these lines. Geological pipers please copy.—A. C. ‘‘Those not in fellowship please sit behind this board.” Accepting this dread limitation are several miserable, well-dressed children with active minds, who, finding nothing to interest them in the proceedings, are point- ing out to each other the obscene passages in the Bible ; or, this failing from insufficient acquaintance with the sacred volume, are engaged in the Sisyphean task of getting rid of the form in front by deglutition. There is also an anzmic and pimply youth with a sporadic beardlet and a dirty face—if it isa face—who is vastly interested: one would say an habitual reader of the Dazly Mail watching nobility at lunch. In front of the board, around the table, are several dear old ladies and gentlemen, a beautiful, overdressed, languid woman, some oilily lousy, lop-eared, leprous, lack- brained, utterly loathsome tradespeople who gurgle and grin, and a sprinkling of horny- handed sons of toil, very shiny. Above, with an olive-branch in one hand and a copy of the Dazly News in the other, floats Mr. G. K. Chesterton in the position Padmasana,! singing ‘‘ Beneath the Cross of Jesus” with one voice, and attempting ‘God save the (Jueen!” with the other in a fashion calculated to turn any marine, if but he be filled with honourable ambition to excel in the traditional exploits of his corps, green with envy. Behind, and for this reason not previously observed by the vigilant eye of the reader, are Sir Percy Percivale and Molly Tyson. Near the ‘‘ Lord’s Table” a brother is standing and praying; he intersperses his prayer with repeated ‘‘you know’s,” like the Cairene bore in Marryat’s novel. ist AGED SISTER (sotto voce). Ves! it’s all so blesséd and romantic, my dear, thank the Lord! They were both brought to Jesus on one night, Ascension Day, as the poor Pagan® bodies call it, through the ministration of Mr. Hogwash, 1 The lotus” position, in which Buddha is commonly represented as sitting. * By Plymouth Brethren all so-called Chris- tian festivals are (rightly, of course, from a historical standpoint) considered mere aliases of pagan [easts.—A, C,