mE ANTj COULSON KERNAHAN Siatftor of J^co/E C‘^ Stniri^c Sins* ED LONDON (3 W^-'.RD OCK- «jBOW'DENU.?B U N I V ERS ITY or ILLINOIS Tom Turner Collection / %■: r Ksv, y* 4 .• \* » L H""' V .j/m if - ^ Li7» rr I ■'i ■*, .•» --rt « I'.. 1 , ■• ■ h • • * «.^ . -«t; •-fc f** V t % * '-^< i. ■ t - • I I"* A- J^r ^ • -t. ’i* *._ fimA ■y^ V# « . w t V . H c ‘,5 'V •i i \ . .1 j • VI 'H s GOD AND THE ANT ‘ ‘ Can the ant creep up into the brain ofman^ to see man's "Morld as man sees it ? Yet has man^ •whose whole world is in the eyes of God but as one ant in a universe^ thought to creep into God's brain^ to see as He sees, to think as He thinks, and to judge the Omnipotent One by man's little laws ” GOI^N^TH COULSON KERNAHAN ^ ' - - ' / - AUTHOR, OF "a book of strange sins' "a dead /AAN’s DIAR^' AND "SORROW AND SONG? I -M ■ ,MH».mwu-z7r: ldndonwardlock es bowpejsis 4 ’ To W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, LL.D. My dear Dr. Nicoll^ All the reading world knows—not fro7n you^ btU frorii the authors the7n- selves—that when such writers as Mr. Barrie^ Mr. Crockett.^ “ Ia7i Maclare7i^'‘ Miss Jane Barlow^ a7td others^ were practically u7ik7iown.^ you were among the Jirsti if not the very first^ to recog¬ nise their ge7iius., and to give them the help and e7icourage7nent which., m its early days, ge7tius needs as much as, if not 7nore than, mediocrity. But it is not so generally known that ^ there are many other writers, with no such claim to recognition, to whom — ^ though their discovery could never be cou7ited as a score ”—you were one 'I of the very first to speak a hopeful I word and to hold out a helpful ha7id. Whe7i 77iy first book was 07ily a few ^^eeks old, a7id while I was awaiting ^ with nervous trepidation the verdict 8 Dedication, of many responsible journals^ you wrote to me—a stra^iger—a most kind and encouraging letter^ askmg me to come to see youy and inviting 7ne to contribute to the “ British Weekly I'* That was more tha7i four years ago, ana fro77i that twie to this—busy 7nan as you are—you have never been too busy to give 7ne the benefit of your valuable advice, ajid to do kindjiesses, which you may forget, but I cannot, Mr, Theodore Watts and Mr, F, W, Robinson, who have been equally kind, were so good as to let me asso¬ ciate books of mme with their 7iames, Will you, in a smiilar way, allow 7ne to associate this little booklet with yours — not, of course, in the sense of identifying you with the views which are herein put forward, but as giving 7ne an opportunity to express iny thanks and 7ny gratitude? Ever faithftdly yours, COULSON Kernahan, “ Thrums,” Southend-on-Sea. Apologia. Tha t what they have to relate actually happened.^ is the worst of all reasons which inexperienced writers put forward for setting pen to paper; and if 1 say of this dream—this 7iightmare.^ if you will—that I actually dreamed it.^ I shall perhaps be told that the state7ne7it explains.^ but does not excicse^ the publication of the booklet. Yet have I no other excuse to offer, I do 7101 7nean that I would have the reader to believe that I dreamed exactly what is here set down; but that the embryo of the whole 7natter was a drea7n^ is literally true. In 7ny waking 7no7nents my thoughts reverted to 77iy dreamy striving to recall a7id to re¬ construct ity and thusy little by little^ 9 lO Apologia. insensibly and imco7tsciously^ the thing wove itself together in my mind.^ until it became what it now is. Asa matter of fact^ I had set about another and very different piece of work.^ but this dream got between me and 7ny subject: it possessed me.^ and would give me 7io peace until I had prisoned it on paper. It vexed and irked me as the grain of sand, which has found its way into his shell, vexes and irks the oyster. Ajid as the oyster covers the gritty cause of his arinoyance with a coatmg of pearl, so I have coated this thmg with words. That it is no pearl I k7iow well, and were it as I wished it to be, it would be very different. But I did not set to work to write it: it ca7ne. When I thmk, however, of the Divine visions which, to the per7nanent and glorious enrichme7it of literature, have afterwards taken for7n and shape, and been set afar, to shine like stars in our skies, I tre77tble at 77ty prestcmption 171 casting afloat upon the world this Apologia, II tiny soap-bubble wJiich^ while I slept, a S077iewJiat unruly l7nagination has blown fro77t the bowl of 77iy brain. Finally, I ask those who find anything at all to like in the booklet, to pardo7i, for the sake of that which pleases the77i, the so77iewhat unpudent slenderness of the 77iatter. By the many who like none of it, I hope this sa7ne slenderness may be accounted an excuse. They can, at least, point out no fault oj which I am not only too pamfully conscious. God and the Ant. My dream. I saw, in a dream, the End of the World. I had thought to behold the sea give up its dead, the graves open, and the countless com¬ panies of the sleepers roll up—like mist from off the face of the earth—to heaven. I had'thought to hear the Last Trump sound- What I had thought to see. 13 14 God and the Ant. ing; to see the heavens part like a rent veil; and to be¬ hold God, seated in tenable majesty upon the clouds, while innumerable legions of shining angels waited His bidding to marshal the vast armies of the dead to their place before the judg¬ ment bar of heaven. But that which I had thought to see, I saw not ; What which I had ‘t’Cin thought to hear, I heard not, for God gave no sign, nor any of his angels; and excepting that around me were the souls of all who had lived and died on the earth, I had God and the Ant. 15 not known that the Great Day of Judgment was indeed come. And though the number of the dead was many million millions, I saw that all were gathered together as one man. For to them that are in the Spirit, Space and Place and Time are not. One says no longer, I am here,’’ or I go there,” for ‘‘Here” and “There” are lost in one ever-conscious “ I am,”—^just as Yesterday and To-morrow, Past and Future, are merged into one unending Now. The Last Day was indeed 2 To them that are in the Spirit, Space and Place and Time are not. 16 God and the Ant, It is God and not man who is called to judg¬ ment. come, but it was God and not man who was bidden to the bar of heaven; it was the Creator and not the creature who was called to judgment. And as with one voice the people cried aloud, saying: The people Come forth, Thou call tipon Godto who wouldst judge us, come forth, and make answer tor the wrongs Thou hast done to man. >> God's But God made no silence. • sign. One of And I saw in my the people makes dream, that from complaint against among that vast God. assembly, gathered God and the Ant, 17 together — like sheep with¬ out a shepherd — upon the plains of Eternity, there arose one with uplifted arms, who cried upon God, say¬ ing: Why hast Thou awa¬ kened us, O God ? We were The flesh a-weary and glad to be and the spirit. at rest; forthoughThou didst make the spirit willing, Thou didst make the flesh weak; though Thou didst ordain that man should be a little lower than the angels, The angel Thou didst also ordain and the 1111 brute. that he should be not far removed from the brutes. And we were a- weary of warring against 18 God and the Ant. lusts we had not strength to overcome; a-weary of hoping hopes too high for us to attain; and we were glad—so glad!—to be at rest. Why hast Thou awakened us, OGod?” And again the people cried : Theteopie “ Come forth Thou again But God is silent. call upon who wouldst judge God to come forth, uS, and make answer for the wrongs Thou hast done to man ! ” But God made no sign. Then spoke a woman, wailing: “ Thou knowest my life, O God! A womatCs tragedy. that I was poor—so poor!—and unlovely, and God and the Ant, 19 alone. And each day I awoke so weary that I had scarce the strength to struggle up that I might go forth to work for the day’s bread. And night after night I laid me down so tired—too tired to sleep. Lifers And, as I lay, the un- hatefulness, endurable thought of the burden which I must take up on the morrow— and every morrow ; and the still more unendurable thought of dying, and being thrust down among foul and rotting things into black nothingness and decay, set my heart leaping like the heart of the hunted and 20 God and the Ant, desperate creature which Death's hears the hounds be- horror, i • j -j. -r j_ hind it, but sees no nook or cranny into which to creep that it may escape their cruel fangs. ‘‘ And so I lived, with the shadow of death and the burden of life ever upon me; and now when my long slumber has come at last— when death’s horror and life’s hatefulness lie behind —now Thou hast called me back to the old burden and the old pain. Why hast Thou awakened us, O God ? ” And the people said: ‘‘ Where is He who would God and the Ant, 21 Once more the people call upon God. But God is silent. judge us? Why comes He not forth to answer for the wrongs He has done to man ? ” But still God made no sign. Then spake a man, saying: “ Have we not long enough been Thy pitiful butt and jest, Thou Great Derider of plaything, theHeavons, that Thou needest to waken us out of our sleep to make sport for Many Gods Thee done again ! ’Twere well in Thee to set our little puppet-play of a world a-going, that our tiny woes and tears might afford Thee beguilement and diversion. Our puppet' play of a world. 22 God and the Ant, ’Twere well done in Thee to make a seeming of goodness, by giving us gifts of love and friendship, that when they had most become part of our lives, Thou mightest mock us by taking them from us again. ’Twere a jest of infinite humour to make life sweet that Thou mightest take it from us when sweetest; to set us in the condemned cell and prison of the earth, that we might behold our companions taken out one by one, as it were, to execution, not knowing but that it might be our turn to be summoned next. But that when the death we so God and the Ant. 23 God the humorist. feared were faced and over, and the long-sought sleep had come at last, Thou shouldst waken us to make sport for Thee again, were a rare jest truly! Give Thee joy of Thy jest, O God ! but wilt Thou not come forth that we may have sight of so cunning a humorist V And the people cried out: Agahi the ‘‘ Come forth Thou people call ttpon God. who makest mock of us; and answer for what Thou hast done.” But still God made no sign. Then spake again a Again is He silent. woman : 24 God and the Ant. ‘‘ In sin was I conceived, among thieves and prostitutes Godmmt was I bom. What make answer chance had I, who Irman'. was brought up, even creation. ^ sin, astoatrade—what chance had I to be other than what I am ? But of mine own will came I not into the world, but of Thine. Answer, then. Thou who didst create a creature, foreknowing that that creature must perish everlastingly — answer for the deed Thou hast done.’' The people call once 7nore upon God. And the people cried out: “Answer,O God! for the deed Thou hast done.” God and the Ant. 25 Onee more He is sile7it. But yet God made no sign. Then spake one, saying: Twas a cruel deed and wanton, though at least this woman suffers for the sins she did herself commit. But what say ye to a God who makes the innocent to suffer for the guilty; yea, whose boast it is that He visiteth the sins of the fathers upon the children who did no wrong? Had any earthly judge dared, in the name of justice, to pronounce such judgment and to call it ‘ good,’ the people would have arisen as one man. Man s last and most solemn indictment of his Maker. 26 God and the Ant. cursing him and casting him out as unworthy of his office. Is good evil, and evil good, because God doeth it ? And shall the Judge of all the earth do wrong, and none be found to call iniquity, ini¬ quity ? ” And the people cried: “ What are our sandlike sins Theteopie Compared to Thine? Come forth Thou who Hu sms. boasteth that Thou dost make the innocent to suffer for the guilty! Come forth and answer for what Thou hast done ! ” But God is silent. And yet God made no sign. And as the people so cried, God and the Ant. 27 there arose from among them a woman, entreating them to give ear to her, saying: That evil might work out its own exceeding bitter A ■woman puiiishment—and for ' guilty parents to know IZ'tf that they have in- flicted upon their chil¬ dren a heritage of woe, must be bitter indeed!—God suf¬ fered it that some share of the consequences of what the parents have done amiss should descend to the chil¬ dren. But do not the same chil¬ dren profit by the things in which the parents have done well ? And how shall they 28 God and the Ant. share the good, if they do not suffer by the evil ? Shall He who is infinite Justice become, as it were, a juggler, to conjure evil into good ? And know ye not that were not misery swift to overtake ill-doing, man had long since made a hell of God’s fair earth ? And shall God work miracles, day by day, to save man from the consequences of man’s own evil deeds ? ‘‘ But who of us can truly say of our lives, that the evil Life is greater than the J", good ?-that the glad- ness was less than the grief? For every tear God and the Ant, 29 that starts to the eye, our lips have worn a thousand smiles. Love and friendship and little children, fields and flowers, sea and sky, sunshine and starlight, have made life glad and beautiful. ‘‘ I say not that there is no misery in the world, for were all things made plain, where were then the test of our faith in God ? Not in the profession of blind optimism, not in shut- Blind ting our eyes to the optimism, mysteries which sur- round us, and by protesting ^ All’s well with the world, therefore will I trust in God,’ does faith consist. The test of faith. 30 God a 7 td the Ant. If we have the fearless¬ ness of perfect faith, we say: ‘ Here is mystery dark terrible ! here are suffering and sorrow, the loving purpose of which it passeth human wisdom to comprehend. Yet must I cling to the faith that God is good; and in regard to the sorrows I see, the suffering I endure, I must through all—in spite of all—trust Him, and hold to Him though He slay me.’ For is not our God Himself a suffering God, ottrGod who sends us no sor- a suffering God. rows Himself has not undergone ? And who that witnessed the sufferings of God and the Ant, 31 His Son — and were ever sufferings like to His ?—could have foreseen that the cruel Cross on which he hung should hereafter be the The Finger- Finger-post to point post to heaven. the way to heaven, or that sounding through the Saviour’s cry of agony in the garden, God heard the triumph - song of a ran¬ somed world ? ‘‘When you were children, you so took your childish The griefs to heart that life sorrows of childhood, looked to you like an eternity of woe, and your tiny sorrows made sorrowful the whole world; and are the tears of the child less 3 God and the Ant, bitter and less real than the tears of the man ? “ But of these childish sor¬ rows, how many remained beyond the hour which called them forth ? how many of the griefs, over which you sobbed yourselves to sleep, en¬ dured till the morning ? how many are there of which as much as the memory of them remains to you now ? “ And when the White Morning of Eternity has The White dawned at last, and Morning of , e i-i Eternity. you stand torth like children newly risen—strong in your noble manhood, beau¬ tiful in your nobler woman¬ hood, and made perfect in God and the Ant, 33 the image of God—then shall your bitterest woe seem of as little moment to you, as the tear which glistens in the eyes of childhood, even while the laugh leaps to the lips. a God’s children. And yet we—His children —have thought to fathom the ways and wisdom of God by our ways and our wisdom, thinking that our little minds could encom¬ pass and set bounds to the Infinite Mind. Can the ant crawl up into the brain of man to see man’sworld as man sees it ? Yet has man, whose whole world is, in the eyes of God, but as God and the ant. 34 God and the Ant, one ant in a universe, thought to creep into God’s brain, to think as He thinks, to see as He sees, and to judge the Omnipotent by man’s little laws. One there is among you, whom I heard crying out that he was a drunkard, be¬ cause his father was a drunkard before him. Then is his the greater shame, see¬ ing that he fell not into sin unwarned and unawares. And for every one who is a drunkard because his father was a drunkard before him, are there not many who have taken warn¬ ing by their father’s sin, and Good out of evil. God and the Ant, 35 will neither touch nor taste the accursed thing, so that good has, in very truth, come out of evil ? A woman among you has said that she was a prostitute because her mother before her was a prostitute, and has bidden God make answer for creating a creature, foreknow¬ ing that that creature must perish everlastingly. ‘‘ But can she foresee into eternity to know what gifts are in store for her from Him who has said that each shall be judged by his light—that from them to whom little was given, little shall be re¬ quired ? I 36 God a 7 id the Ant, And know ye not that the misery of the world is of man’s and not of God’s making ? “ By man’s tempting, and not by God’s decree, did yon¬ der woman’s mother fall; and therefore man’s sin and man’s punishment are the greater. But who was it that, making in God’s name, laws unto themselves more abominable in His eyes than the rites of heathendom, shut fast in her face the only door by which the wandering sheep, that He sent His Son to save, would have returned to the fold—who but her sister-women ? The misery of the "world is of matt s^ not God's making. God and the Ant, 37 Who was it that let the sinning-against come and go in their midst, but drew aside their skirts, as if her very touch were contami¬ nation, from the sinned- Women against, and by their have ever i i it • i looks, their words, or cruellest it may be their very Silence, hounded her out from among them, driving her, in the very recklessness of despair, from bad to worse, from sin to infamy—who but the very Christian women who should have been the first to hold out a hand to save ? It is women who would have us believe that the weak- 38 God and the Ant. ness of an unguarded mo¬ ment must mean a life- A time’s pollution ; that dev its doctrine. chastity is the one and only thing which, once lost, can never be regained; and who, by robbing God’s crea¬ tures of their birthright of self-respect and hope, have set open a gate to hell in every home. Who was it that dared to arrogate and narrow down, to one negative meaning, the sacred names ot ^ virtue,’ ‘ chastity,’ ‘ purity,’ and ‘ honour ’ ? Think ye that she who, for the sake of his money, marries the man she does not love, who sells herself God and the Ant. 39 A '‘^fallen ” 'woman. only “ immoral" •who have broken one shamelessly and sordidly— white body and woman soul —for so many hun¬ dreds or thousands of golden coins is less ‘fallen’ than she who is a mother but Are they ^ ^ Think ye that they only are ‘ immoral ’ who have la'wofGodi broken law of God? —that the woman whose lips are defiled by lies is ‘ vir¬ tuous’ though her body be chaste, or that a harlot is more hateful in the sight of Heaven than the woman who has set on foot a slander against her neigh¬ bour ? “Ye do well to call into 40 God and the Ant, question the justice of a God who, if He had not tempered justice with mercy, but had meted out punishment to you according to your deserts, had not suffered your iniquities and your hypocrisies thus long, but had arisen in righteous wrath and struck out your names from the Book of Life. Stand forth ye church¬ going, form-observing women, chaste, some of you, more from self-consideration and fear of the world than from love of purity or fear of God, or haply because you have never been tempted; stand forth ye who have pronounced God and ihe Ant. 41 judgment upon your neigh¬ bours, calling this woman ‘ fallen ’ or that man ‘ lost ’ whom ye shall find among the honoured and loved of God; stand forth ye who have dared even to pronounce judgment upon your Maker — stand forth, and take your place at the bar whence ye have summoned Him ! ” The woman ceased, and as her voice died away, there arose one upon whom all eyes were fixed. And he spoke to the people, saying : ‘‘ I am he who, when in like straits to yours, did blaspheme as you, O my 42 God and the Ant. brothers and sisters, have blasphemed; I am he who A strange huDg by the dying tcstifKOfty* o • 1 t- • Saviour — he who in the hour of death and judg¬ ment did revile that Divine Sufferer, even as you in your hour of judgment have blasphemed the most Holy Name of God. I am he whom, these many a hundred Who shall years, ye have called the infinite the ‘ impcnitent thief, mercy and , • • knowing not the in¬ finite mercy and power of God. For, be it known to you that, as I hung in that Sacred Presence, I saw, ere my spirit fled, the people mocking and Godl God and tJie Ant, 43 reviling Him, even as I—foul sinner that I am—had mocked and reviled Him. And I saw that, even as He had answered me not, so He answered them never a word, but lifting His eyes to heaven, He prayed to His God and theirs, ^ Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!’ ‘‘And as He thus prayed. He turned and bent on me—me, the outcast, the blasphemer, the vilest and The dying impenitent of all that vile and impeni¬ tent throng—such look thief, Divine dignity, such look of infinitely pitying and Christ looks at the crucifed 44 God and the Ant. pardoning love, that, though my anguish - racked body, heavy with approaching death, hung, dragging its dead weight from the cross, I forgot the straining of my torn and quivering hands against the cruel nails, forgot the thousand tortures which each heart-throb sent through every nerve and limb ; forgot shame and death and judg¬ ment, in wonder and worship and love. “To your knees, O brothers and sisters,and sue for pardon, A call to that even as I—out- refentance. blasphemer— obtained mercy at that last moment of my life, so may God and the Ant. 45 ye, blasphemers and impeni¬ tent, be forgiven by the inter¬ cession of the same Saviour who laid down His life for us all! ’’ And many of the people, greatly trembling, cried out: He speaketh truly. Let The^>eopie kneel before the greatly ugainst whom we (jone this thing, testimony, forgiveness in the name of the Saviour Christ, who laid down his life for us all! ” Then uprose one who spoke mockingly: “ Make not ye Christians too great a boast, that your 46 God and the Ant, But God's enemy and man's seeks to set man against man's Saviour. Christ did lay down His life for others ? Think ye that none but the Christ has suffered death that others might live ? The Christ did lay down His life to save a world, knowing that in recompense He should receive a kingly guerdon ; but men—aye, and feeble women —have laid down theirs to save a single soul in that world, though they looked for no reward. He, to win the love of a worshipping universe, endured death willingly, assured that when His suffer¬ ings were accomplished, He should inherit eternal bliss. God and the Ant. 47 They, for the sake of a brother-man or sister-woman —aye, and for the sake of a principle or a creed—feared not to face the wild beast’s fang, the martyr’s fire, and died, praising God and glorifying His name. And this they did, knowing not whether the death, which they went forth of their own accord to meet, be the Great Mesmerist, the Shadow of Is Death whose hand, when it falls upon our faces, Mesmerist^ * ' or the calls US from Life’s Great Destroyer^, sleep and trance to Eternity’s awakening; or whether he be the Great Destroyer, at whose trans- 4 48 God and the Ant, muting touch man’s spirit flickers out, and is no more, and man’s body dissolves again into the dust whence it sprang. Who is this Christ that He should rule over us ? Think ye that His triumph was dearly bought, who for a few short hours upon the Cross is recompensed by the throne of Heaven ? ” And some of the people murmured, saying : The He speaketh truly. People give ear to the tevipter. The sorrows of the Christ were but for a season. These many a hun¬ dred years has He reigned secure in the bliss of heaven. God and the Ant, 49 while upon earth,each minute, a human heart was breaking. Hunger and thirst, heat and earth cold, wearincss of body each minute and sickness of soul. have been our portion. breaking disease have had their cruel will of us, and on every side was heard the cry of mothers mourning for their children, children for their mothers, wives for husbands, and hus¬ bands for wives. Some of us died, starved for want of bread for the body; Heart- starved and body starved. others — and theirs the bitterer pang — heart- starved for the want of the sympathy and love, with- $0 God and the Ant, out which they could not live. a And so we passed our days—haunted by the fear of death, and prey to disease and torture, while He who calls Himself the Saviour of man smiled down on us serenely from the heavens, His sorrows long while for¬ gotten in eternal bliss.” But others crying Christ. Saviour Christ turned from him saying: “ This man utteretli blasphemies.” Where¬ at he spoke again, and mockingly: ” Where is this Satan^ seeing^ his kingdom slippmg from hini^ strives to regain it by a taunt. God and the Ant. 51 The last despair’ ing and most aw/ttl blasphemy by which he seeks to set man against God. Him ! The coming oj the Christ. Saviour of Men, this Christ who tarrieth so long ? ‘‘ What if your God—the jealous God — have slain him, saying, ‘ Lo ! this Christ, this God-Man, has become greater than I, and draweth all men unto Come, let us slay Him, that the people may have none other God but me.’ ” And as the Mocker so spoke, I saw in my dream, as I looked upon that vast assembly, that One was standing in their midst, of whose coming none had been aware—One UNIVERSITY ILLINOIS LIBF 52 God and the Ant, whose features were the features of a man, but whose face was the face of God. All silently and unseen He came, as once of old to His disciples, but upon that vast assembly there fell a hush like the silence which follows prayer. And turning to him who had last spoken, the Christ made answer: Thou who hast through¬ out the world’s history put it into the heart of man to do devilries which no human pas¬ sion could inspire, which none but a devil could prompt — thou the author The Christ answers Satan. God and the Ant, 53 of all blasphemies and all evil, who of old didst stir up war in heaven, tempting the very angels of God to their fall, comest thou at the last, thinking to work the eternal ruin of man ? ” Then turning to the people He said: Look ye for the second coming of the Christ ? ” And with one voice the people chanted : We look for the Second Advent of the Christ, who shall come again with glory, to judge both the quick and the dead. Whose Kingdom shall* have no end.” And in a voice of infinite 54 God and the Ant. and wearied sadness, He made answer: “Even so of old awaited the Jews the Coming of the The Messiah. They looked Second Co7ning for a King and a Con- of the Christ, queror, and lo! there came unto them a helpless babe! And even so, come I unto you again—the victim, not the victor, the crucified, not the crowned, the Christ of Calvary and Gethsemane, the bearer of all your bur¬ dens, the sufferer for all your sins. Did you indeed think, beloved, that while you were suffering and sorrowing on earth, I, your elder Brother God and the A?tt. 55 and Saviour, could rest con¬ tent in the bliss of heaven ? —that I ceased to share your sorrows when my earthly life was at end ? O mothers, who mourned for your children, it was my The ever- heart that brake when suffering Saviour. you fell sobbing by that tiny bed ! O little chil¬ dren ! every hair of whose head is sacred unto Me, to spare whose little feet one step on a thorny road, I would endure and gladly a Calvary of woes! O weary men! O lonely women ! whose every sorrow I have known, at whose every tear this heart of mine has bled— 56 God and the Ant, think you that any nail which wounded these hands, these feet, on Calvary’s Cross, stabbed me with so cruel a pang, as that which pierces my soul at any sin or sorrow of thine ? ‘‘ You have suffered for a lifetime, but I, until time shall be no more; and even as every sorrow of yours has entered into my heart, so has every sorrow of mine entered into the heart of the Father. Said I not unto you that, ^ Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the “ Even tinto the endofthe ?' and thought world.” j could be with you, and not feel with God and the Ant, 57 you, sorrow with you, suffer with you ? But now is that end in¬ deed accomplished ; now are the powers of darkness for ever over¬ come ; now is death, the last enemy, destroyed; and now render I up the King- Novj is that end acco7n- plished. God all and in dom to my Father,that God may be All, and in All.’’ Whereat my dream passed, and I awoke—awoke dream passes. SO suddenly that I carried with me into the waking world the words of a dream-world prayer : ‘‘ Lord Christ, who hast borne, and dost continually bear the 58 God and the Ant. My prayer. burden of all our sins and the burden of all our woes, grant that I, at least, may never wound Thy heart, may never add to Thy burden, by any wilful sin of mine ! ’’ In at my open window, singing from the gates of morning, came the cool sweet air of early dawn. And as I arose looked out, I saw the rising sun burst — like an incoming sea against a break¬ water—through a dense bank of cloud, flooding and glori¬ fying the haggard streets of London with glamour of wizard gold. Above me— Sunrise on the great city. and God and the Ant. 59 upraised like the arm of a priest who holds the cross on high as he pronounces the benediction—I saw the purple dome of the Cathedral, upbearing like a giant arm the golden cross that soars above the city. And, as I looked, the rays of the low-lying sun broke forth behind the brooding and cross-crowned dome, casting the shadow, slant-wise, and thrown out into vast pro¬ portions, across street and square. Below me, in the street, hurrying to their work, I saw pass and repass, haggard men and careworn women; 6 o God and the Ant. but in every face I saw the sorrowful face of Christ; and over the great city—yea, over God’s whole world—I seemed to see resting THE SHADOW OF A CROSS. UNWIN brothers, CHILWORTH AND LONDON. BY THE SAME AUTHOR. Sorrow anb Song. THIRD EDITION. Crown ^vo, buckram, 35. ^d. AthenSBUm (four column review, commencing on first pa^e):—“ These essays are eloquently and often poetically written, and the criticism is, we think, mainly just.” “ A tribute (the paper on Marston) of singular beauty and tenderness, but at the same time full of critical insight.” Times: —“By a writer of much insight and origin¬ ality.” Morning Post: —“Remarkable papers. Both as a psychologist and critic he is thoroughly conscientious and discriminative. Gracefully written, his study of Heine charms by its keen j^et sympathetic appreciation of a com¬ plex genius, while the article on Robertson of Brighton, and others in the volume, are no less characterised by originality and serious thought.” Mr. S. R. Crockett in “ Bookman The reader fares sumptuously during the hour or two he may spend with Mr. Kernahan. The essays are both truly thought and well written. . . . Mr. Kernahan shows him¬ self a genuine thinker, a sympathetic critic, a patient analyst, and above all a man of wholesome clean soul, so far as he has enshrined it in the pages of this modestly dignified little book.” Mr. Norman Gale in “Literary World”:— “ The phrasing is often finely managed, the language em¬ ployed is illuminative without being intricate, the estimate IS that of a man knowing nothing of the tricks of bias. . . . Then comes a beautiful sentence. . . . But if we begin to quote notable passages our task will be a long one. To recommend our readers not to miss this little volume will be better.” SORROW AND SONG. OPINIONS OF THE PRESS {continued). Mr. R. Le Gallienne in “ Star “ Mr. Ker- nahan certainly possesses that health of mind and heart the absence of which he deplores in Heine, and his books always give one the sense of a robust, manly personality.” Review of Reviews : — “ The most important volume of literary criticism the month has brought us.” Pall Mall Gazette :—“ Mr. Kernahan can be a gracious critic . . . Shows as pretty a trick of word-painting as any man need want.” St. James’s Gazette :—It would seem as if the author of ‘ A Dead Man’s Diary ’ and ‘ A Book of Strange Sins ’ had found for the weird moods and impulses, the sighs and sobs from a hidden world, which he has before controlled in the realm of fiction, a local habitation and a name in the personalities of the actual mortals he delineates in these luminous sketches.” Daily Chronicle :—“ . . . Where he has to make a critical point, it is characterised by perfect and winning simplicity. His utterance has dignity and vigour. . . . The fine seriousness which distinguishes the substance oi these papers from that of the work of many of our younger critics. . . . Mr. Kernahan has passed a test which has proved too severe for several distinguished literary scribes. The papers will be read with interest and pleasure by those who are drawn to the study either of literature or life.” National Observer: —“Mr. Kernahan’s new book is to be welcomed.” Black and White: —“These scholarly papers. His essay on Heine shows a wonderfully accurate estimate o. that fantastic genius, while his ‘Note on Rossetti’ shows critical insight of a high order.” Sketch: —“‘Sorrow and Song’ sheds a better light upon the attractive individuality of its author than any work we have yet had from him. The little ‘ Note on Rossetti ’ is worthy of that often misapplied eulogy ‘ prose poem.’ There is a vitality and a feeling in it which conveys a sense of freshness entirely unlooked for from such a title. . . . A volume which, in its turn, possesses all these attri¬ butes and adds to them a literary grace and charm which are entirely of the individuality of the author.” WARD, LOCK AND BOWDEN, Ltd., London, New York, and Melbourne. BY THE SAME AUTHOR. A Dead Man’s Diary. Fifth Edition, crown %vo, 35‘. 6^/. The Times (“Literary Notes Messrs. Ward, Lock and Co. are about to issue a Library Edition (the Fourth) of A Dead Man's Diary, with a portrait of the author. Originally the Diary was published anonymously, when it attracted so much attention that dishonest claims were put in to the authorship, and one man, by representing himself as the author, induced a firm of publishers to advance money upon a book of his. His work was in the press and approaching completion before the fraud was discovered, when the entire edition was suppressed. The name of the author, Mr. Coulson Kernahan, which was dis¬ closed in the columns of the Athenceum, will appear for the first time on the title-page of the Fourth Edition. Like Mr. Jerome and Mr. J. M. Barrie, Mr. Kernahan is a protege of Mr. F. W. Robinson, the novelist.” Mrs. Louise Chandler Moulton in Syndicate Article on “ Four Modern Men”:—“ A book which must certainly be accounted one of the pronounced literary successes of the time. It has gone through various editions in America, as well as in England, and I think no one who has read it could ever quite escape from its haunting spell. It contains passages of poetic prose which no lover of the beautiful will overlook, and its appeal to the consciences of men is even more strenuous. I am not surprised to hear that the first English edition of 2,000 copies was exhausted a few days after publication.” Mr. J. M. Barrie, in “The British Weekly”:— “The vigour of this book is great, and the anonymous author has an uncommon gift of intensity. On many readers, it may be guessed, the book will have a mesmeric effect.” Mr. Barry Pain, in the “Speaker” :—“We find beautiful and appreciative writing in these pages.” Mr. I. Zangwill, in “Ariel”:—“There can be no doubt of the force and freshness of most of the book, of the fine literary quality of some of the chapters, and of the interest of the whole. . . . There is too many a burst of beautiful English.” Globe :—“ Has achieved a brilliant success.” Daily Telegraph:—“ Great reverence and much literal*}’ power.” WARD, LOCK AND BOWDEN, Ltd., London, New York, and Melbourne. LYRA ELEGANTARIUM, EDITED BY FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON, ASSISTED BY COULSON KERNAHAN, Crown ^vOy clothy cut or uncut edgesy 2 s, Mr. A. C. Swinburne, in his last volume “ Studies in Prose and Poetry”:—“There is no better or com¬ pleter anthology in the language.' I doubt, indeed, if there be any so good or so complete. No objection or suggestion which can reasonably be offered can in any way diminish our obligation, either to the original editor or to his evi¬ dently able assistant, Mr. Kernahan.” Mr. Edmund Gosse, in “ The Illustrated London News”:—“Where so many skilful hands have tried to produce rival anthologies, these two, each in its own class, preserve their unquestionable superiority. Mr. Locker- Lampson has been helped in this republication by Mr. Coulson Kernahan, who has entered into the elegant spirit of the editor, and has continued his labours with taste and judgment.” The Spectator :—“ A volume so charming, and, in spite of the one or two microscopic faults we have pointed out, so perfect.” The Speaker :—“ The book is the best of its kind inthe language, and therefore it needs no praise.” The Saturday Review :—“ Its merits have been too long established to need any further praise.” The Graphic :—“A volume every page ot which is a delight.” Critic (New York):—“ The standard anthology of its kind.” The National Observer:—“The book is a book for every one to have, and which none but the unsalted of the earth will read without gratitude.” ^YARD, LOCK AND BOWDEN, Ltd., London, New York, and Melbourne. BV THE SAME AUTHOR, A Book of Strange Sins. Fourth Edition^ crown %vo^ cloth, 3 ^'. 6 . • *1 ' • » -, .V *a!? V ' * ^ lip ^ . ■ . , - f v.l&rj; . 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