BETA

Sister Rose Gertrude.

Prefatory Note.

Sister Rose Gertrude, who has sailed to be the Superior of the
Lepers’ Hospital at Kalawao, on the Island of Molokai, the home of
the late Father Damien, is the daughter of the Vicar of Combe-
Down, sometime chaplain of the Union and H.M. prison at
Bath.
A member of the Roman Catholic Church, and of one of its
‘nursing’ sisterhoods, she feels that ‘ suffering is her vow and her
profession.’ ‘Love which cannot suffer is unworthy of the name
of love.’
For years past it has been her desire to go forth and tend the
lepers in their lonely island home, and she has equipped herself
for the work by study in the hospitals and at the Pasteur Institute
in Paris.
It had always been,’ she said to a lady who interviewed her
on the eve of her departure, ‘ my wish and my desire to do
some of God’s work on earth into which I could throw my
whole being, where there was scope for the fullest self-sacrifice,
and where I could follow Him who said : “ Greater love hath
no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”’
She handed shyly a little old prayer-book to the lady, and
continued :
I don’t know whether I ought to tell you, but unless I do I
shall not have explained one of the reasons of my great wish to
go, and live with, and help the lepers.’
In Miss Fowler’s small, clear handwriting, a prayer was written
on the leaf—the touching, pathetic prayer which is said to have
been found on the chest of the Prince Imperial when he was
carried dead from the battle-field in Zululand.
Miss Fowler pointed to the passage : ‘ If Thou only givest on
this earth a certain sum of happiness, take, O God ! my share and
bestow it on the most worthy . . . . . If Thou seekest vengeance
on man, strike me !’
If, Lord, Thy hand to each a sum doth give
Of joy, take mine to be on others shed.
And if Thou seekest vengeance, strike me dead
So others live.

Sister Rose with the clear blue eye,1
And the Dominic dress, and the milk-white hood,2
You have long resolved : you have crossed the flood ;3
You have out-faced death, and the leper’s ban,4
For the glory of God and the love of man ;5
At least, you can never die.6
It is true you sat in your sombre gown7
And waved a hand to the twilit shore ;8
It is true, when the funnels began to roar9
And the stern to lash in the Mersey tide,10
You looked back over the vessel’s side11
And thought of the Combe and the Down.12
But your soul had long ago crossed the seas13
To the tall dark cliffs with their ladders of sun,14
To the beach where the pitiless breakers run,15
Where the lepers wail on the prisoning strand,16
And the Christ alone with His loving hand17
Can lessen the sore disease.18
Sister Rose, there the roses glow,19
The wild convolvulus shines like fire,20
The air is as soft as heart can desire,21
The honey-bird gleams, and the fern-trees wave,22
But the ocean moans round an island grave,23
And-death is above and below.24
Sister Rose, you will land in a bay25
Where like jewels the fish will swim or sleep ;26
But the shark’s fierce fin sails out of the deep.27
Fair is the noon, but all night in the south28
The dread volcano flames from its mouth29
Anguish and sore dismay.30
One can bear to sit down by a corpse awhile,31
To see the face-cloth drawn from a face32
Which has won from death a renewal of grace ;33
But how will it be when the face that is death34
Still breathes and heaves through its knots with breath35
And counterfeits still a smile ?36
One can wait and watch by a coffin, when37
The lid is closed, and the cry unheard ;38
But what if the dead man called or stirred ?39
And what if the pain of our agony40
Were to tend the dead, and to hear the cry41
Of the still uncoffined men ?42
One can love and pity the wounded and weak,43
The mangled body whose face is whole,44
Whose eyes look forth with the look of a soul ;45
But ah, when the body has ceased to be46
The thing God made it, no eyes to see,47
No ears, and no lips to speak !48
Sister Rose, when saw you the Lord ?49
Did you gaze at Him coming from off the hill50
When the leper cried, and He said, ‘ I will :51
Be clean !’ Or when did the angels meet52
And strew the lilies about your feet,53
And press your hands to the sword ?54
Sword of the spirit and lilies of life,55
Flower of the heart and weapon of fire,56
Tender and keen with the soul’s desire57
To dare this deed, and to face disease58
With the flush of your health ; in the Southern Seas59
To be unto Death for wife.60
When you were a child did the angels come,61
That day that you gave your cowslip ball62
To the crippled boy ? Did you hear the call63
When the birds were crying about their nest64
In the copse, and you carried with beating breast65
The wounded pigeon home ?66
When your life with the birds and the flowers was filled,67
With the sun and the dew of the Somerset lane,68
Did you go to the prisoner’s house of pain,69
Or take your little white heart of pity70
Into the grim and the sorrowing city,71
And feel that God’s will had willed ?72
Had you read of Siena’s Saint and the dove73
That hovered above the maiden’s head ?74
Or of her who, giving the leper a bed,75
Found Christ? Or of him who learned to die76
That the dying might live at Molokai,77
That thus you are sworn to Love ?78
Or was it a faded leaf with a prayer,79
They found on a fallen soldier’s breast,80
Which has sent you forth on your holy quest81
To beat down death, and if God must give82
The blow, to bear it, so brothers may live,83
And sisters your sunlight share ?84
It matters little : the angels came,85
Passed through the streets of the troubled town86
To the quiet village beneath the Down ;87
They touched your soul and they opened your eyes,88
They fired an altar of sacrifice89
And cast your heart in the flame.90
And ever since then your grey hills gleamed91
As grey as the native hills He knew,92
Who loved his friends to the death, and drew93
The whole world after: yea, yonder mill,94
With its arms outstretched on the top of the hill,95
Like a cross in the darkness seemed.96
Sister Rose Gertrude, the Gates of Heaven97
Are open for you; and your heart that was small98
Is wide to embrace the world at the call99
Of Love at the gates. Let England prove100
At the height of its power, its power to love :101
To you is the high task given.102