Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away ,” He calls (Song of Songs 2:10 KJV)! Away from Egypt’ s bondage—away . . . but with Him! Divinely betrothed!

“My Beloved!” are the words. No other voice would have so aroused her. To His voice her heart responds. Expectation quickens the hearing; and when we are truly desirous toward Christ, how quickly the accents of His voice are caught!

He said: “Wilt thou go with Me Where shadows eclipse the light?”

And she answered: “My Lord, I will follow Thee Far, under the stars at night.”

But He said: “No starlight pierces the gloom Of the valley thy feet must tread; But it leads thee on to a cross and tomb—”

“But I go with Thee,” she said.

“Count the cost; canst thou pay the price—Be a dumb thing led; Laid on an altar of sacrifice?” “Bind me there, my Lord,” she said. “Bind me that I may not fail— Or hold with Thy wounded hand; For I fear the knife and the piercing nail, And I shrink from the burning brand. Yet whither Thou goest I will go, Though the way be lone and dread—”

His voice was tender, and sweet, and low—“Thou shalt go with Me,” He said.

And none knew the anguish sore. Or the night of the way she came; Alone, alone with the cross she bore, Alone in her grief and shame.

Brought to the altar of sacrifice, There as a dumb thing slain: Was the guerdon more than the bitter price? Was it worth the loss and pain? Ask the seed-corn, when the grain Ripples its ripened gold; Ask the sower when, after toil and pain, He garners the hundredfold.

He said (and His voice was glad and sweet): “Was it worth the cost, My own?”

And she answered, low at His pierced feet, “I found at the end of the pathway lone not death, but life on a throne!”

ANNIE CLARKE

“Wilt thou go with this man?” (Genesis 24:58 KJV).