| |
| SHE came and stood in the Old South Church | |
| A wonder and a sign, | |
| With a look the old-time sibyls wore, | |
| Half-crazed and half-divine. | |
| |
| Save the mournful sackcloth about her wound, | 5 |
| Unclothed as the primal mother, | |
| With limbs that trembled and eyes that blazed | |
| With a fire she dare not smother. | |
| |
| Loose on her shoulders fell her hair, | |
| With sprinkled ashes gray; | 10 |
| She stood in the broad aisle strange and weird | |
| As a soul at the judgment day. | |
| |
| And the minister paused in his sermon’s midst, | |
| And the people held their breath, | |
| For these were the words the maiden spoke | 15 |
| Through lips as the lips of death: | |
| |
| “Thus saith the Lord, with equal feet | |
| All men my courts shall tread, | |
| And priest and ruler no more shall eat | |
| My people up like bread! | 20 |
| |
| “Repent! repent! ere the Lord shall speak | |
| In thunder and breaking seals! | |
| Let all souls worship Him in the way | |
| His light within reveals.” | |
| |
| She shook the dust from her naked feet, | 25 |
| And her sackcloth closer drew, | |
| And into the porch of the awe-hushed church | |
| She passed like a ghost from view. | |
| |
| They whipped her away at the tail o’ the cart | |
| Through half the streets of the town, | 30 |
| But the words she uttered that day nor fire | |
| Could burn nor water drown. | |
| |
| And now the aisles of the ancient church | |
| By equal feet are trod, | |
| And the bell that swings in its belfry rings | 35 |
| Freedom to worship God! | |
| |
| And now whenever a wrong is done | |
| It thrills the conscious walls; | |
| The stone from the basement cries aloud | |
| And the beam from the timber calls. | 40 |
| |
| There are steeple-houses on every hand, | |
| And pulpits that bless and ban, | |
| And the Lord will not grudge the single church | |
| That is set apart for man. | |
| |
| For in two commandments are all the law | 45 |
| And the prophets under the sun, | |
| And the first is last and the last is first, | |
| And the twain are verily one. | |
| |
| So long as Boston shall Boston be, | |
| And her bay-tides rise and fall, | 50 |
| Shall freedom stand in the Old South Church | |
| And plead for the rights of all! | |
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