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THE TOILING OF FELIX

A LEGEND

ON A NEW SAYING OF JESUS

IN the rubbish heaps of the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus, near the river Nile, a party of English Explorers, in the winter of 1897, discovered a fragment of a papyrus book, written in the Second or Third Century, and hitherto unknown. This single leaf contained parts of seven short sentences of Christ, each introduced by the words, "Jesus says:" It is to the fifth of these Sayings of Jesus that the following poem refers.

PRELUDE

A LOST WORD OF JESUS

HEAR

a word that Jesus spake Eighteen centuries ago,

Where the crimson lilies blow

Round the blue Tiberian lake:

There the bread of life he brake,
Through the fields of harvest walking
With His lowly comrades, talking
Of the secret thoughts that feed
Weary hearts in time of need.
Art thou hungry? Come and take;
Hear the word that Jesus spake :

'Tis the sacrament of labour; meat and drink divinely blest;

Friendship's food, and sweet refreshment; strength and courage, joy and rest.

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