# “Lament” by Evangeline Paterson

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2010/04/20/lament-by-evangeline-paterson/
- Published: 2010-04-20T13:40:06-05:00
- Author: tollelege

**“Lament”**
 By Evangeline Paterson

Weep, weep for those
 Who do the work of the Lord With a high look And a proud heart.
Their voice is lifted up In the streets, and their cry is heard. The bruised reed
they break By their great strength, and the smoking flax They trample.

Weep not for the quenched
 (For their God will hear their cry And the Lord will 
come to save them) But weep, weep for the quenchers

For when the Day of the Lord
 Is come, and the vales sing And the hills clap their
hands And the light shines

Then their eyes shall be opened
 On a waste place, Smouldering, The smoke of the
flax bitter In their nostrils, Their feet pierced By broken reed-stems… Wood, hay,
and stubble, And no grass springing. And all the birds flown.

Weep, weep for those
 Who have made a desert In the name of the Lord.

–Evangeline Paterson, “Lament,” _Deep Is the Rock_ (Elms Court: Arthur H. Stockwell
Limited, 1966). As quoted in Francis Schaeffer, [_The Mark of the Christian_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0891073310?tag=toletaupanre-20)
in [_The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0891073310?tag=toletaupanre-20),
[_Volume Four, A Christian View of the Church_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0891073310?tag=toletaupanre-20)(
Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1982), 205.

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