Do You Hear the Women Praying?
Read before the Women's Prayer League of Portland,
May 27, 1874
Do you here the women praying, Oh my brothers?
Do you here what words they say?—
These, this freeborn nation's wives and mothers,
Bowing—where you proudly stand—to pray!
Can you coldly look upon their faces,
Pale, sad faces, seamed with frequent tears
See their hands uplifted in their places—
Hands that toiled for all your boyhood's years?
Do you here what words they say?—
These, this freeborn nation's wives and mothers,
Bowing—where you proudly stand—to pray!
Can you coldly look upon their faces,
Pale, sad faces, seamed with frequent tears
See their hands uplifted in their places—
Hands that toiled for all your boyhood's years?
Can you see your wives and daughters pleading
In the dust you spurn beneath your feet
Baring hearts for years in secret bleeding,
To the scoffs and jestings of the street?
Can you here, and yet not heed the crying
Of the children perishing for bread?
Born in fear, not love, and daily dying
Cursed of God, they think, but cursed of you instead!
In the dust you spurn beneath your feet
Baring hearts for years in secret bleeding,
To the scoffs and jestings of the street?
Can you here, and yet not heed the crying
Of the children perishing for bread?
Born in fear, not love, and daily dying
Cursed of God, they think, but cursed of you instead!
Do you hear the women praying, Oh my brothers?
Hear the oft-repeated burden of their prayer
Hear them asking for one boon above all others—
Not for vengeance on the wrongs they have to bear;
But imploring, as their Lord did, "God forgive them,
For they know not what they do;
Strike the sin, but spare the sinner——save them;"—
Meaning, Oh ye men and brothers, you!
Hear the oft-repeated burden of their prayer
Hear them asking for one boon above all others—
Not for vengeance on the wrongs they have to bear;
But imploring, as their Lord did, "God forgive them,
For they know not what they do;
Strike the sin, but spare the sinner——save them;"—
Meaning, Oh ye men and brothers, you!
For your heels have ground the women's faces;
You have coined their blood and tears for gold,
Have betrayed their kisses and embraces,
Returned their love with curses, twenty-fold;
Made the wife's crown one of thorns, and not of honor;
Made her motherhood a pain and dread;
Heaped life's toil unrecompensed upon her
Laid her sons upon her bosom dead!
You have coined their blood and tears for gold,
Have betrayed their kisses and embraces,
Returned their love with curses, twenty-fold;
Made the wife's crown one of thorns, and not of honor;
Made her motherhood a pain and dread;
Heaped life's toil unrecompensed upon her
Laid her sons upon her bosom dead!
Do you hear the women praying, Oh my brothers?
Have you not one word to say?
Will a just God be as gentle as those mothers,
If you dare to say them nay?
Oh ye men, God waits for you to answer
The prayers that to Him rise
He waits to know if you are just, ere He is,—
There your deliverance lies!
Have you not one word to say?
Will a just God be as gentle as those mothers,
If you dare to say them nay?
Oh ye men, God waits for you to answer
The prayers that to Him rise
He waits to know if you are just, ere He is,—
There your deliverance lies!
