---
title: 'Lays of the Cross: Charles Washington Baird'
type: post
author: 'R. Andrew Myers'
date: 2018-12-06
url: https://confessional.org/blog/2018-lays-of-the-cross-charles-washington-baird
---

# Lays of the Cross: Charles Washington Baird

One of the great Huguenot historians, [Charles Washington Baird](/authors/charles-washington-baird), [like so many of our Presbyterian ministers](/topics/poetry), was also a poet. Posthumously published, his *Lays of the Cross* constitute a series of seven poems relating to Christ on the cross, followed by one additional poem titled “Domine, Quo Vadis?” These are found in the *Memorials of the Rev. Charles W. Baird, D.D.* (1888). Take time to peruse his poetry because he used his gifts to point his readers to the cross. One sample:

**BEARING THE CROSS**

I saw the Lord with painful steps and slow
To Calvary’s height His weary course begin;
His bending shoulders bore the Cross of sin;
His fainting spirit carried all our woe;
I saw the priests in cruel triumph go;
The careless soldiers hemmed their prisoner in,
Whose pallid brow, whose visage marred and thin,
The curious crowds with sorrowing pity know.
”My suffering Lord!” with trembling voice I cried,
When first that wounded form I chanced to see:
”To me, to me, Thy shameful load confide;
Be mine the bliss to bear the Cross for Thee!”
”Nay, zealous child,” my gracious Lord replied,
”Bear thou thy cross, and come and follow Me.”