The dining table looked cheerful and festive,
Everyone had gone out to make the occasion a delight;
Two men shook hands, sat side by side,
Joined by another friend, Earl, they had a feast;
The pleasant appearing young man, Sam, had a leisure meal,
In his power did everyone feel at ease
Not withstanding the reason of the gathering.

Time came when good friends Earl and Sam needed apart;
For Earl's time was but on the next week, thanked Sam for the
friendship's spiritual impact on his life.

Left alone in the room, Sam and his pastor
visited at length about spiritual things.

Where in the outside world newspaper headlines
screaming out the news "Tannyhill to die in chair tonight",
And when everyone party for which justice was about to be done,
A killer was about to die, paying the penalty for gross misdeeds.

But Christ changed him that this man was no longer the same;
A man to have found that the presence of Jesus can
turn even a death-row cell into a glorious place.

In his dungeon shared his light that a number of souls
were saved before they went to sleep.

Through letters preached his mother and relatives,
and even they received the truth and witnessed;
Sam lived the twenty-seventh of his life the best.

He desired to live, to be baptized in the water, and to worship
God in His temple, but pleaded God's will be done.

How difficult must it be for the Heavenly Father?
To execute both mercy and justice at once?
But God certainly knew when to give life and when to take.
In his grave with voice silenced, Sam laid but a moment.