SHADOWS

I am sorry in the gladness

Of the joys that crown my days,

For the souls that sit in sadness

Or walk uninviting ways.

On the radiance of my labour

That a loving fate bestowed,

Falls the shadow of my neighbour,

Crushed beneath a thankless load.

As the canticle of pleasure

From my lovelit altar rolls,

There is one discordant measure,

As I think of homeless souls.

And I know that grim old story,

Preached from pulpits, is not so,

For no God could sit in glory

And see sinners writhe below.

In that great eternal Centre

Where all human life has birth,

Boundless love and pity enter

And flow downward to the earth.

And all souls in sin or sorrow

Are but passing through the night,

And I know on some to-morrow

God will love them into light.