Project Gutenberg's It Was the Road to Jericho, by Annie Fellows Johnston This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: It Was the Road to Jericho Author: Annie Fellows Johnston Illustrator: John R. Neill Release Date: August 9, 2012 [EBook #40462] Last Updated: November 3, 2019 Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IT WAS THE ROAD TO JERICHO *** Produced by David Edwards, Emmy and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) It was the Road to Jericho Inside front facing Man on donky carrying wounded man It was the Road to Jericho By Annie Fellows Johnston flower Author of The Little Colonel· The Desert of Waiting· Etc. ILLUSTRATED BY JOHN R NEILL NEW YORK BRITTON PUBLISHING COMPANY Copyright 1919 by Annie Fellows Johnston flower with plane flying above It Was the Road to Jericho It was the road to Jericho, And brave indeed the man Who went alone and waited not To join the caravan. For robber hoards swooped down the cliffs Like eagles on their prey, And mercy was not known to them, Theirs but to kill and slay. robber on cliff Along the road to Jericho A man went riding by, He heard a groan of mortal pain, He heard a piercing cry. Man on donkey He got him down from off his beast, He found the one who bled, The thieves had bruised and beaten him And left him well nigh dead (The Levite and the priest had passed, The calls to them were vain). He bound his wounds. With oil and wine He eased the grevious pain. Then to the inn he carried him And paid the keeper's price, As one who does a deed for love, Nor counts it sacrifice. Lo, as he passed upon his way, His robe it showed a stain— Two red marks on his white sleeve, where The bleeding head had lain. One, made in pity when he stooped To lift the wounded up, The other, when in love he bent To offer him the cup. Samaritan looking down on man in bed Two red, red lines which made a cross, And marked him as the man Whose name is, till the end of time "The good Samaritan." Part II Soldiers behind barbed wire fence The World pressed toward its Jericho, The goal of its desire— Its marts, its pleasures and its shrines Its dreams of great empire. A hoard of gold it bore along To barter and to buy. But on the road, by thieves beset, It, too, was left to die. The Son of God came down that way To succour and to save, To bind its wounds, to heal its sin To lift it from the grave.