The Suffering Church Poem by Richard Merrell

Those rats, they came again last night
I could not sleep at all;
It's very hard to move you see
When you're chained to the wall.

The welts upon my back sure hurt
Men kicked me in the face;
I'm despised and rejected
By most of the human race.

'Curse Jesus Christ' was their command
But silent I did keep,
So now, where I once had fingers;
Those stumps, they just seep.

Yesterday the guards took me
And burned my feet with fire;
Tried to force me to reject the Lord
And make Him out a liar.

The beloved in the cell next door
He went home today
I watched them as they passed my door;
Dragging his corpse away.

The sun now sets, those rats I hear
As they crawl up to me;
Tonight I go home to my Lord,
For all eternity.

One thing I say before I die
It's you I long to find;
Please, do not say I don't exist
For Jesus heals the blind.

Now you may ask, 'Who are you? '
And, 'Why for you I search? '
How dare you ask me, who I am
I am, THE SUFFERING CHURCH!

'Let brotherly love continue. Remember them that are in bonds,
as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity,
as being also yourselves in the body.'

Hebrews 13: 1,3