"The Messenger"
lyrics and music by Benjamin Newman

/ A2 G FG A2 / / A2 - F G / A2G FG FG A2 /

All for to be their messenger, they've flayed away his hide
And made the black blood run in lines upon his naked side
All for to be their messenger, and go where he is sent
A faithful page, of a brazen age, so into the night he went

But now a storm's come out of the East, and he's been long waylaid
And at long last the village priest has found him where he's strayed
And the priest he's brought him from the dust and out into the air
To be seen again in the sight of men, his message still to bear

But now the priest he's turned him o'er to a strange and awful fate
For the judge he's said he were better dead, for his message came too late
But if he'll but repent his crime, new words and true they'll give
So they've scraped his skin clean off again, and said they'll let him live

Now once again the black blood's flowed, and he's been sent away
And been waylaid upon his road, and lost to the light of day
Again his message comes too late, and not to where it ought
Two charges now he's borne astray, and the first he's clean forgot

Now kinder men have healed his hurts, for he'd wounded sore
And they've shone a strange light on him, and he's told them all, and more
For all that time and torture tried and treated him their worst
He's borne each tale true to his end, both the second and the first