In Jesus' time there lived a youth so black and dissolute,
That Satan from him shrank, appalled in every attribute;
He in a sea of pleasures foul uninterrupted swam,
And gluttonized on dainty vices, sipping many a dram.
Whoever met him in the highway turned as from a pest,
Or, pointing lifted finger at him, cracked some horrid jest.
I have been told that Jesus once was passing by the hut
Where dwelt a monk, who asked him in, and just the door had shut,
When suddenly that slave of sin appeared across the way
Far off he paused, fell down, and sobbingly began to pray.
As blinded butterflies will from the light affrighted shrink,
So from those righteous men in awe his timid glances sink;
And like a storm of rain the tears pour gushing from his eyes.
" Alas, and woe is me, for thirty squandered years, " he cries.
" In drunkenness I have expended all my life's pure coin;
And now, to make my fit award, Hell's worst damnations join.
O would that death had snatched me when a sinless child I lay.
That ne'er had I been forced this dreadful penalty to pay.
Yet if thou let'st no sinner drown who sinks on mercy's strand,
O then in pity, Lord! reach forth and firmly seize my hand. "
The pride-puffed monk, self-righteous, lifts his eyebrows with a sneer,
And haughtily exclaims, " Vile wretch! in vain hast thou come here.
Art thou not plunged in sin, and tossed in lust's devouring sea?
What will thy filthy lies avail with Jesus and with me?
O God! the granting a single wish is all I pray;
Grant me to stand far distant from this man in the judgment day. "
From Heaven's throne a revelation instantaneous broke,
And God's own thunder words thus through the mouth of Jesus spoke:
" The two whom praying there I see shall equally be heard;
They pray diverse, — I give to each according to his word.
That poor one thirty years has rolled in sin's most slimy deeps,
But now, with stricken heart and streaming tears, for pardon weeps.
Upon the threshold of my grace he throws him in despair,
And, faintly hoping pity, pours his supplications there.
Therefore, forgiven and freed from all the guilt in which he lies
My mercy chooses him a citizen of Paradise.
This monk desires that he may not that sinner stand beside,
Therefore he goes to Hell, and so his wish is gratified. "
The one's heart in his bosom sank, the other's proudly swelled;
In God's pure court all egotistic claims as naught are held.
Whose robe is white, but black as night his heart beneath it lies
Is a live key at which the gate of Hell wide open flies!
Truly not self-conceit and legal works with God prevail;
But humbleness and tenderness weigh down Salvation's scale.
That Satan from him shrank, appalled in every attribute;
He in a sea of pleasures foul uninterrupted swam,
And gluttonized on dainty vices, sipping many a dram.
Whoever met him in the highway turned as from a pest,
Or, pointing lifted finger at him, cracked some horrid jest.
I have been told that Jesus once was passing by the hut
Where dwelt a monk, who asked him in, and just the door had shut,
When suddenly that slave of sin appeared across the way
Far off he paused, fell down, and sobbingly began to pray.
As blinded butterflies will from the light affrighted shrink,
So from those righteous men in awe his timid glances sink;
And like a storm of rain the tears pour gushing from his eyes.
" Alas, and woe is me, for thirty squandered years, " he cries.
" In drunkenness I have expended all my life's pure coin;
And now, to make my fit award, Hell's worst damnations join.
O would that death had snatched me when a sinless child I lay.
That ne'er had I been forced this dreadful penalty to pay.
Yet if thou let'st no sinner drown who sinks on mercy's strand,
O then in pity, Lord! reach forth and firmly seize my hand. "
The pride-puffed monk, self-righteous, lifts his eyebrows with a sneer,
And haughtily exclaims, " Vile wretch! in vain hast thou come here.
Art thou not plunged in sin, and tossed in lust's devouring sea?
What will thy filthy lies avail with Jesus and with me?
O God! the granting a single wish is all I pray;
Grant me to stand far distant from this man in the judgment day. "
From Heaven's throne a revelation instantaneous broke,
And God's own thunder words thus through the mouth of Jesus spoke:
" The two whom praying there I see shall equally be heard;
They pray diverse, — I give to each according to his word.
That poor one thirty years has rolled in sin's most slimy deeps,
But now, with stricken heart and streaming tears, for pardon weeps.
Upon the threshold of my grace he throws him in despair,
And, faintly hoping pity, pours his supplications there.
Therefore, forgiven and freed from all the guilt in which he lies
My mercy chooses him a citizen of Paradise.
This monk desires that he may not that sinner stand beside,
Therefore he goes to Hell, and so his wish is gratified. "
The one's heart in his bosom sank, the other's proudly swelled;
In God's pure court all egotistic claims as naught are held.
Whose robe is white, but black as night his heart beneath it lies
Is a live key at which the gate of Hell wide open flies!
Truly not self-conceit and legal works with God prevail;
But humbleness and tenderness weigh down Salvation's scale.