Page:Poet Lore, volume 34, 1923.djvu/315

If one of you has wronged a friend,
If he has slain some feeble foe,
And by that act has lost his soul,
Or shut his door to homeless men,
Or held back food from hungry lips,
Or left unbound a sufferer’s wounds,
Or if his faith in God has failed,
These all are sins and grievous deeds;
Without repentance ye are lost.
Repent while yet it is to-day!
While time remains, my sons, repent!
Repent ere yet your souls are called
By him who thunders in the sky.
Repent! your life is brief, repent!
Repent! When next the morning dawns
Some here will walk upon the road
That all some daymust journey on.
Repent!—"
The old man ceased.
The words died on his lips unspoken,
And tear-drops trembled on his beard,
Like pearls that glisten in the sun.
Perchance he thought of days gone by,
And wounds in his own heart revived
The while he healed the wounds in theirs.

Good shepherd of his flock! The words
He spoke were words each day he lived.
Good shepherd! What he laid on them,
He also laid upon himself.
Touched by his tender words the troop
Stood silently before their priest,
And one might think them harmless lambs,
Who late were raging lions.

Such miracle his words had wrought.
But what is this that now appears
Before their eyes in worship fixed,
That all at once a hundred hands
Are grasping at a hundred swords?
Strange happening! A hundred hearts
That sought the sky; a hundred wills