Page:Heralds of God.djvu/99

THE PREACHER'S THEME sacrifice of praise would rise to God, if all worshippers knew themselves in very truth to be sons and daughters of the Resurrection!

Alfred Noyes has a striking poem. The Lord of Misrule which confronts us with the challenging thought that if the facts of our holy religion and our supernatural faith no longer move us to exultation, then the pagan world itself will rise up and condemn us—that pagan world which revels in the lesser gifts of nature. The poem is based on the tradition reported by an old Puritan writer that "on May-days the wild heads of the parish would choose a Lord of Misrule, whom they would follow even into the Church, though the minister were at prayer or preaching, dancing and swinging their may-boughs about."

Then into the pulpit itself, where a few moments before the preacher had been droning his drowsy flock to sleep, the Lord of Misrule pushes his way, and faces the congregation:

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