| Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907. | | | Rose’s Diary (1850).
“O Father! I have sinn’d against Thee” | | By Henry Septimus Sutton (1825–1901) |
| | XI.
DECEMBER. O FATHER! I have sinn’d against Thee,—done | |
| The thing I thought I never more should do. | |
| My days were set before me, light all through, | |
| But I have made them dark, it is too true, | |
| And drawn dense clouds between me and my Sun. | 5 |
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| Forgive me not, for grievous is my sin; | |
| Yea, very deep and dark. Alas! I see | |
| Such blackness in it, that I may not be | |
| Forgiven of myself,—how then of Thee?— | |
| Vile, vile without; black, utter black within. | 10 |
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| If my shut eyes should dare their lids to part, | |
| I know how they must quail beneath the blaze | |
| Of Thy love’s greatness. No: I dare not raise | |
| One prayer to look aloft, lest I should gaze | |
| On such forgiveness as would break my heart. | 15 | | | |
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