In "The Ballad of Jim Baxter" this same thought is more vividly and strongly set forth. It is the story of one type of German cruelty of which we have heard in the war dispatches several times and that have been confirmed on the spot; the story of the Germans nailing men to crosses. Jim Baxter suffered this experience: "When Jim came to, he found himself Nailed to a cross of wood, Just like the Christs you find out there On every country road. "He wondered dully if he'd died, And so, become a Christ; 'Perhaps,' he thought, 'all men are Christs When they are crucified.'" The Vision Splendid. And in this homely lad's homely way of putting his cruel experience who knows but that there may be such truth as yet we cannot see in the dark chaos of war? THE CHRIST AND HIS VOICE It isn't a far step from the cross to the Christ of the cross, and in this man's poetry the two mingle and commingle so closely that one overlaps the other. But always these two things stand out--the cross and the Christ. And in the new volume, The Fiery Cross, one finds many pages devoted to this great thought alone. Of the tenderness of the Christ he speaks most sympathetically, having in mind again the lads that war has taken. In "The Master's Garden" hear him: "And some, with wondrous tenderness, To His lips He gently pressed, And fervent blessings breathed on them, And laid them in His breast." The Vision Splendid. And then of his sweetness, referring again to the "Jim Baxter," we have a wonderful picture of the oft mentioned Comrade in White, who is so real to the wounded soldiers: "His face was wondrous pitiful, But still more wondrous sweet; And Jim saw holes just like his own In His white hands and feet; But His look it was that won Jim's heart, It was so wondrous sweet. "'Christ!'--said the dying man once more, With accent reverent, He had never said it so before, But he knew now what Christ meant--" The Vision Splendid. Oxenham has great faith in humanity. From time to time we find him expressing man's kinship with the stars and with God and Christ. "Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels" this poet takes seriously, thank God. This word from the Book means something to him. And so it is in a poem called "In Every Man" we see him finding Christ in every man: "In every soul of all mankind Somewhat of Christ I find, Somewhat of Christ--and Thee; For in each one there surely dwells That something which most surely spells Life's immortality. * * * * * "And so, for love of Christ--and Thee, I will not cease to seek and find, In all mankind, That hope of immortality Which dwells so sacramentally In Christ--and Thee." The Fiery Cross.