Page:A New Zealand verse (1906).pdf/271
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The Judgment.
235
And I made answer, “O Lord, I am afraid.”
And the voice ceased.
I rose up and turned away,
Moving along the well-worn path
To my own home.
But the ground was all stained
As with the steps of feet that bled;
And I knew Who was before me,
Knew the love and the sorrow;
And fear fell from me like a garment,
And I girt my robes about me,
And fled after Him—whither I could not tell;
Only it was the way that He had gone.
And the voice ceased.
I rose up and turned away,
Moving along the well-worn path
To my own home.
But the ground was all stained
As with the steps of feet that bled;
And I knew Who was before me,
Knew the love and the sorrow;
And fear fell from me like a garment,
And I girt my robes about me,
And fled after Him—whither I could not tell;
Only it was the way that He had gone.
Mary E. Richmond
CLXVII.
The Judgment.
To thunder-sounds last night I had a dream
Of going up before God’s Judgment Seat,
Along a great and wide gold-paven street,
And by the fount that feeds the crystal stream;
On dome and turret the red lightning’s gleam
Made vengeful lights, and my reluctant feet
Fain would have stayed where angels come and meet
World-weary ones that Love and Death redeem.
Of going up before God’s Judgment Seat,
Along a great and wide gold-paven street,
And by the fount that feeds the crystal stream;
On dome and turret the red lightning’s gleam
Made vengeful lights, and my reluctant feet
Fain would have stayed where angels come and meet
World-weary ones that Love and Death redeem.
No throng of spirits filled the Judgment Hall,
No king in purple and in gold array,
No king in purple and in gold array,