Classic Poem

Then said that Form who sat in Judgment:


" Jew!
Once judged and slain, yet risen and judged anew,
Thou hast heard the Accuser and his Witnesses
Hast thou a word to utter answering these?
Hast thou a living Soul beneath the sky
To rise upon thy side and testify?
Summon thy Witnesses, if such there he,
Ere I pronounce the doom of Man on thee!"

The Jew gazed round, and wheresoe'er His gaze
Shed on that throng its gentle suffering rays
Tumult and wrath were hush'd, as in deep Night
Great waves lie down to lap the starry light
And lick the Moon's told feet that touch the Sea.

" I have no word to answer," murmured He,
" The winter of mine age hath come, and lo!
My heart within sinks 'neath its weight of woe!
So faint and far-removed all seems to be,
I seem the ghost of mine own Deity,
The apparition of myself, and not
A living thing with will or strength or thought!
Yet I remember" (here His piteous eyes
Scarch'd the bare Heavens again with dim surmise)
" Yet I remember, on this my Judgment Day,
Not what is near, but what is far away.
Within my Father's House I fell to sleep
In dreamless slumber mystical and deep,
And when I waken'd to mine own faint crying,
Above the cradle small where I was lying
A Mother's face hung like a star, and smiled.

" Transform'd into the likeness of a child,
Feebly I drank the milk of mortal being;
But as the green world brightened to my seeing
And the round are of air closed over me,
The Land beyond grew dark to memory,
And I forgot my former dwelling-place,
The Life Eternal, and my Father's Face.
Closer and darker, as the summers flew,
The folds of flesh around my spirit grew,
Shutting that heavenly Mansion from my sight,
Save oftentimes in visions of the night
When for a space I slept the sleep of earth;
But since that moment of my mortal birth,
I have not seen my Father, and now He seems
More faint than any form beheld in dreams!"

He paused, uplifting still His weary gaze
To search the empty Heaven's pathless ways
For miracle and token, then was dumb.

" Thy quest hath fail'd, thy Kingdom hath not come,"
The dark Judge said; " thy promise was a Lie —
Thy Witnesses?"


And Jesus made reply:
" Hosts of the happy Dead whom I have blest!"

" Call — let them come!"


" I would not break their rest."

" Thou hast lied to them, O Jew!" the dark Judge cried.

And Jesus said, " O Judge, I have not lied!"

" False was thy promise — false and mad and drear.
There is no Father!"


" Father, dost Thou hear?"

" Enough — renew thy miracles, and prove
Thy words, O Jew! From yonder Void above
Summon the Form, the Face, in all men's eyes,
And we absolve thee!"
On the starry skies,
Still thinly shrouded with the falling snow,
He fix'd His wistful gaze, and answer'd low,
" I bide my Father's time!"