The Eternal Justice

Thank God that shall judge my soul, not man! I marvel when they say, “Think of that awful Day No pitying fellow-sinner’s eyes shall scan With tolerance thy soul, But His who knows the whole, The God whom all men own is wholly just.” Hold thou that last word dear, And live untouched by fear. He knows with what strange fires He mixed this dust. The heritage of race, The circumstance and place Which make us what we are—were from His hand, That left us, faint of voice, Small margin for a choice. He gave, I took: shall I not fearless stand? Hereditary bent That hedges in intent He knows, be sure, the God who shaped thy brain. He loves the souls He made; He knows His own hand laid On each the mark of some ancestral stain. Not souls severely white, But groping for more light, Are what Eternal Justice here demands. Fear not: He made thee dust; Cling to that sweet word—“Just;” All ’s well with thee if thou art in just hands.

Collection: 

More from Poet

Thank God that shall judge my soul, not man! I marvel when they say, “Think of that awful Day No pitying fellow-sinner’s eyes shall scan With tolerance thy soul, But His who knows the whole, The God whom all men own is wholly just.” Hold thou that last word dear, And live...

I Shall go out when the light comes in— There lie my cast-off form and face; I shall pass Dawn on her way to earth, As I seek for a path through space. I shall go out when the light comes in; Would I might take one ray with me! It is blackest night between the worlds, And how is a soul...

I Made the cross myself whose weight Was later laid on me. This thought is torture as I toil Up life’s steep Calvary. To think mine own hands drove the nails! I sang a merry song, And chose the heaviest wood I had To build it firm and strong. If I had guessed—if I had dreamed Its...

Green blood fresh pulsing through the trees, Blacks buds, that sun and shower distend; All other things begin anew, But I must end. Warm sunlight on faint-colored sward, Warm fragrance in the breezes’ breath; For other things art heat and life, For me is death.

How can it be that I forget The way he phrased my doom, When I recall the arabesques That carpeted the room? How can it be that I forget His look and mien that hour, When I recall I wore a rose, And still can smell the flower? How can it be that I forget Those words that were the last...