Chapter VIII: Shepherds of Men

_The picture for which this was written shows the shepherds standing over their slumbering flock under the shelter of a great rock. To them appears an angel, his feet almost touching the ground, bearing in one hand a star and raising the other hand to call attention to his message._

Shepherds of Men

Shepherds of men--not sheep--
Your age-long watch who keep,
Have ye grown weary waiting for the light?
Are ye resigned to see
Your silly charges free
To wander lost and helpless in the night--
For whom the word was given of old
That all should reach at last the eternal fold?

Or, sunken in despair,
Deem ye the cruel lair
Of wolf and lion safe as man's domain?
Think ye too deep, too deep,
The human lies asleep,
And nought but beast awake in blood and brain?
Is there no inward-turning eye,
No pitiful great yearning for the sky?

Or faint you at the dearth
Of comfort in the earth?
Is Nature with the bad in man and beast
So straitly leagued the rocks,
That shelter now your flocks,
Might flow like lead from furnace fires released,
And e'en the soil on which you tread
Prove fleeting as the clouds above your head?

Have all your passionate cries
'Gainst solid-seeming skies
Shivered and fallen in mocking echoes back?
Does prayer in vain assail?
Do tears for nought avail?
Does the bright maze of stars all language lack?
A world where struggles, griefs, desires,
Make streams in hell but light not heaven's fires?

Blesséd, O Shepherds, ye,
Who now the glory see,
Though still your flock for vision unalert!
Light lifted not too high,
Nor opening quite the sky,
Yet quickening skyward yearnings long inert;
Yea, making pathways for the feet
To find the spot where earth and heaven meet!

Blesséd, again, since, borne
Unto a world forlorn,
Heaven's herald comes, yet no-wise alien!
Of heaven the cross-like wings,
Yet man's the voice that rings,
Human the eyes that meet the eyes of men;
Human the feet that seek the ground;
Human the hands that scatter light around!

O Star, with heaven-born beams,
Awake us from our dreams!
O clothed with light, miraculous messenger,
Set us upon the way
To greet the coming day,
Where, worshipping the Very Light, it were
Foretaste of Heaven's eternal peace--
Of earth's unquiet wanderings surcease!

Shepherds, forget your fear!
The dawn, the dawn is near!
Though upstart Herod and the Roman might
Combine with all the tribe
Of faithless priest and scribe
To quench in mists of unbelief the light,
The long-expected King's at hand,
To rule in peace and righteousness the land!

Say you the vision fades,
While all around the shades
Creep coldly on and all your courage dies?
Go forth, while round you ring
Strains ye heard angels sing
When all heaven flashed upon your startled eyes.
For though your vision fade away,
'Tis but that dawn may broaden into day.

The Child your eyes shall see,
As yet laid lowlily,
Not yet full-statured risen to the skies--
Not yet with tongue that speaks,
Not yet with arm that breaks
The iron fetters of earth's tyrannies--
Is earnest of the struggle won,
And all life's shadows smitten of the sun.

Oh, once again the tale
Makes faith o'er doubt prevail!
Oh, once again the vision wakes to deeds
That god-like grow and shine
Till, grown to the divine,
Man soars to heights beyond where doubt impedes,
And in one glimpse of Heaven's glory
He reads the fulness of the human story.