Yet sawest thou ever small or great,
Living in prayer and holy fear,
Who did not forfeit at some date
The meed of heaven to merit clear?
Nay much the rather, year by year,
All bend from right and to evil bow;
Mercy and grace their way must steer,
For the grace of God is great enow.”
LIII
“But enow of grace have the innocent
New-born, before the sacred shrine,
They are sealed with water in sacrament,
And thus are brought into the vine.
Anon the day with darkness blent,
Death by its might makes to decline;
Who wrought no wrong ere hence they went,
The gentle Lord receives, in fine;
They obeyed His will, they bore His sign,
Why should He not their claim allow?
Yea, and reward them, I opine,
For the grace of God is great enow.”
LIV
“ ’Tis known enow that all mankind
At first were formed for perfect bliss;
Our forefather that boon resigned,
All for an apple’s sake, I wis;
We fell condemned, for folly blind,
To suffer sore in hell’s abyss;
But One a remedy did find
Lest we our hope of heaven should miss.
He suffered on the cross for this,
Red blood ran from His crownèd brow;
He saved us by that pain of His,
For the grace of God is great enow.”
LV
“Enow there flowed from out that well,
Blood and water from His broad wound:
The blood bought us from bale of hell,
And from second death deliverance found.
The water is baptism, truth to tell,
That followed—the spear so sharply ground,
And washes away the guilt most fell
Of those that Adam in death had drowned.
Now is there nothing in earth’s great round,
To bar from the bliss wherewith God did endow
Mankind—restored to us safe and sound,
For the grace of God is great enow.”
XII
LVI
“Grace enow a man may get
By penitence, though he sin again;
But with long sorrow and regret,
He must bear punishment and pain;
But righteous reason will not let
The innocent be hurt in vain;
God never gave His judgment yet,
That they should suffer who show no stain.
The sinful soul of mercy fain
Finds pardon if he will repent,
But he who sinless doth remain
Is surely saved, being innocent.”
LVII
“Two men are saved of God’s good grace,
Who severally have done His will:
The righteous man shall see His face,
The innocent dwells with Him still.
In the Psalter thou may’st find a case:
‘Lord, who shall climb to Thy high hill,
Or rest within Thy Holy Place?’
The psalmist doth the sense fulfill:
‘Who with his hands did never ill,
His heart to evil never lent,
There to ascend he shall have skill;’
So surely saved is the innocent.”
LVIII
“That the righteous is saved I hold certain;
Before God’s palace he shall stand
Who never took man’s life in vain,
Who never to flatter his fellow planned.
Of the righteous, the Wise Man writeth plain
How kindly our King doth him command;
In ways full strait he doth restrain,
Yet shows him the kingdom great and grand,
As who saith: ‘Behold! yon lovely land!
Thou may’st win it, if so thy will be bent.’
But with never peril on either hand,
Surely saved is the innocent.”
LIX
“Of the righteous saved, hear one man say—
David, who in the Psalter cried:
‘O Lord, call never Thy servant to pay,
For no man living is justified.’
So thou, if thou shalt come one day
To the court that each cause must decide,
For mercy with justice thou may’st pray
Through this same text that I espied.
But may He on the bloody cross that died,
His holy hands with hard nails rent,
Give thee to pass when thou art tried,
Saved, not as righteous, but innocent.”
LX
“Of the sinless saved the tale is told—
Read in the Book where it is said:
When Jesus walked, among men of old,
The people a passage to Him made;
Bringing their bairns for Him to hold,
For the blessing of His hand they prayed.
The twelve reproved them: ‘Overbold
To seek the Master;’ and sternly stayed.
But Jesus said: ‘Be ye not afraid;
Suffer the children, nor prevent;
God’s kingdom is for such arrayed.’
Surely saved are the innocent.”
XIII
LXI
“Christ called to Him the innocents mild,
And said His kingdom no man might win,
Unless he came thither as a child—Not
otherwise might he enter in,
Harmless, faithful, undefiled,
With never a spot of soiling sin—For
these whom the world has not beguiled
Gladly shall one the gate unpin.
There shall that endless bliss begin,
The merchant sought, and straight was led
To barter all stuffs men weave and spin,
To buy him a pearl unblemished.”
LXII
“ ‘This pearl unblemished, bought so dear,
For which the merchant his riches gave,
Is like the kingdom of heaven clear;’
So said the Father of world and wave.
It is a flawless, perfect sphere,
Polished and pure, and bright and brave;
As on my heart it doth appear,
It is common to all who to virtue clave.
My Lord, the Lamb Who died to save,
Here set it in token of His blood shed
For peace. Then let the wild world rave,
But buy thee this pearl unblemishèd.”
LXIII
“O Pearl unblemished, in pure pearls dressed,
That beareth,” said I, “the pearl of price,
Who formed thy figure—and thy vest?
Truly he wrought with cunning nice;
For thy beauty, above nature’s best,
Passeth Pygmalion’s artifice;
Nor Aristotle the lore possessed
To depict in words so fair device.
Than fleur-de-lys thou art fairer thrice,
Angel-mannered and courtly bred—
Tell to me truly: in Paradise
What meaneth the pearl unblemished?”
LXIV
“My spotless Lamb, who all doth heal,”
She answered, “my dear Destiny,
Chose me in marriage bond to seal;
Unfit, He graced me regally,
From your world’s woe come into weal.
He called me of His courtesy:
‘Come hither to me, my lover leal,
For mote nor spot is none in thee.’
He gave me my might and great beauty;
He washed my weeds in His blood so red,
And crowned me, forever clean to be,
And clothed me in pearls unblemishèd.”
LXV
“Unblemished bride, bright to behold,
That royalty hath so rich and rare,
What is this Lamb, that thou hast told
How for wedded wife He called thee there?
Above all others dost thou make bold,
As His chosen lady His life to share?
So many, comely in combs of gold,
For Christ have lived in strife and care,
Must these to a lower place repair,
That never any with Him
