THE REVEALING ANGELS

By Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Suddenly and without warning they came -

The Revealing Angels came.

Suddenly and simultaneously, through city streets,

Through quiet lanes and country roads they walked.

They walked crying:‘ God has sent us to find

The vilest sinners of earth.

We are to bring them before Him, before the Lord of Life.’

Their voices were like bugles;

And then all war, all strife,

And all the noises of the world grew still;

And no one talked;

And no one toiled, but many strove to flee away.

Robbers and thieves, and those sunk in drunkenness and crime,

Men and women of evil repute,

And mothers with fatherless children in their arms, all strove to hide.

But the Revealing Angels passed them by,

Saying:‘ Not you, not you.

Another day, when we shall come again

Unto the haunts of men,

Then we will call your names;

But God has asked us first to bring to him

Those guilty of greater shames

Than lust, or theft, or drunkenness, or vice -

Yea, greater than murder done in passion,

Or self-destruction done in dark despair.

Now in His Holy Name we call:

Come one and all

Come forth; reveal your faces.’