Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, =
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or =
evil side;
Some great cause, God’s new Messiah, offering each the =
bloom or blight,
Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon =
the right,
And the choice goes by forever ‘twixt that darkness and =
that light.
Hast thou chosen, O my people, on whose party thou shalt =
stand,
Ere the Doom from its worn sandals shakes the dust =
against our land?
Though the cause of Evil prosper, yet ’tis Truth alone =
is strong,
And, albeit she wander outcast now, I see around her =
throng
Troops of beautiful, tall angels, to enshield her from =
all wrong.
Backward look across the ages and the beacon-moments =
see,
That, like peaks of some sunk continent, jut through =
Oblivion’s sea;
Not an ear in court or market for the low, foreboding =
cry
Of those Crises, God’s stern winnowers, from whose feet =
earth’s chaff must fly;
Never shows the choice momentous till the judgment hath =
passed by.
Careless seems the great Avenger; history’s pages but =
record
One death-grapple in the darkness ‘twixt old systems and =
the Word;
Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the =
throne,—
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim =
unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His =
own.
[excerpts from a poem of the same name by James Russell =
Lowell]
~~
Dr Bob Griffin =
[email protected] =
www.grif.net
"Jesus =
Knows Me, This I Love!"