Ultima Thule/The Sifting of Peter
FOLK SONGS.
THE SIFTING OF PETER.
In St. Luke's Gospel we are toldHow Peter in the days of oldWas sifted;And now, though ages intervene,Sin is the same, while time and sceneAre shifted.
Satan desires us, great and small,As wheat to sift us, and we allAre tempted;Not one, however rich or great,Is by his station or estateExempted.
No house so safely guarded isBut he, by some device of his,Can enter;No heart hath armor so completeBut he can pierce with arrows fleetIts centre.
For all at last the cock will crow,Who hear the warning voice, but goUnheeding,Till thrice and more they have deniedThe Man of Sorrows, crucifiedAnd bleeding.
One look of that pale suffering faceWill make us feel the deep disgraceOf weakness;We shall be sifted till the strengthOf self-conceit be changed at lengthTo meekness.
Wounds of the soul, though healed, will ache; The reddening scars remain, and make Confession; Lost innocence returns no more; We are not what we were before Transgression.
But noble souls, through dust and heat, Rise from disaster and defeat The stronger, And conscious still of the divine Within them, lie on earth supine No longer.