The Voice

Matters nothing to me now
Who dispraised or praises me ;
I am gone where they and thou,
Fondest friend ! erelong must be.

Dread thou to severely scan
Blame that is or may have been ;
Meeter Judge there is for man
Than his fellow-soul of sin.

I have known in evil hearts
Rays of goodness, here and there;
And the saint, when he departs,
Hath full need of human prayer.

All are brothers; and the sole
Hope of your hereafter rest
Is that Heaven may bless the whole,
For the One who was the Blest:

By that word he spake for them
Who had speared the Sinless through,
“Father, spare Thou to condemn
Souls that know not what they do.”