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THE DEATH OF WELFORD
243
Fear than love is far stronger:
The cruel have seldom to rue:
The neck is bowed 'neath the heavy heel,
Love's covenant with Death they seal;
"For they know not what they do."
This Dead, by the far sun-down,
This man whom they idly slew,
Was lover and friend to those who had slain
With him all human love, like Cain;
But "they know not what they do."
'Twixt laws Divine and human
To judge, if we only knew,
When the blood is hot, to part wrong from right,
When to forgive and when to smite
Foes who "know not what they do."
The wronger and wronged shall meet
For judgment, to die, or live;
And the heathen shall cry, in anguish fell,
At sight of the Bottomless Pit of Hell—
"We knew not, O Lord! Forgive."
