Page:Poet Lore, volume 28, 1917.djvu/506

486 And said, Ah, come down from the cross! For Thou Didst style Thyself king! Thou, that wouldst destroy The temple and then build it in three days, Well, save Thyself! Stood by also chief priests And scribes with long and flowing beards, and said Amongst themselves: True,, [sic]true, He saved others; Let Him then save Himself now—There also Were many women looking on afar, Who ministered to Him in Galilee, Salome, Mary, and Magdalene, and who Came up with Him unto Jerusalem.

Crucified, naked, shorn, He was numbered With transgressors. And crusted blood clung to His scourged body, while ruddy streams oozed from His hands and feet and dripped upon the ground. His dying eyes gazed out into distance, Across the white city, hills and woodlands And ridges of the peaceful peaks in whose Lap lie the blue waters of Galilee.

He bowed His head. A winged rustling reached His ear. ’Twas not the Father’s angel with Refreshment’s chalice for a weary soul— An unclean spirits with it batlike wings Outstretched upon the air flew unto Him. He had to suffer Satan to sit on His cross, lean toward His head. For faint within Him was His spirit and weak to resist.

And Satan then said: Woeful Sufferer, Upon Thy cross of wood we meet again! Today the last time. ’Tis settled today. The battle has been fought. Rememberst Thou Three years hence, when I carried Thee yon in The wilderness upon a high mountain And shewed Thee mighty kingdoms, promised Thee All of the glory of this world, shouldst Thou Fall down and worship me? Thou didst refuse.