| |
| THE GREAT white fast! the day that solemnly | |
| Its clarion-call sent over land and sea, | |
| In gracious summons of the Voice Divine; | |
| That bade the soul before truth’s inner shrine, | |
| Clad in the whiteness of humility, | 5 |
| Itself disrobed of all externals be;— | |
| What mandate gave the day to you and me? | |
| |
| It is the judgment day of all the year! | |
| Unmasked, life’s vices hideously appear, | |
| As conscience struggles with its deadly fear; | 10 |
| With introspection’s force by memory driven, | |
| We find the flower-strewn path led far from heaven. | |
| At cost of highest aims flung in the dust, | |
| We have been faithless, merciless, unjust. | |
| |
| As by Thy shrines of prayer, devout we stood, | 15 |
| Throbbed heart with will-power’s love of brotherhood? | |
| With invocations to Thy holy name, | |
| Looked we beyond reward of earthly fame? | |
| Dared we Thy present inspiration seek, | |
| With might of gold’s oppression ’gainst the weak? | 20 |
| |
| The glowing friendship, as a meteor’s flight, | |
| Lost in the storm depths of swift falling night; | |
| O’er all the beautiful, cast worldly blight. | |
| Shall the reverberating call in vain | |
| Echo throughout the awaiting world’s domain? | 25 |
| Nor summon Israel from lethargic sleep, | |
| In broader fields, on grander heights to reap? | |
| |
| The Past is o’er; has justice entered in | |
| The awakened conscience? and the worldly din | |
| Died into silence ’neath the voice of God? | 30 |
| Know we the wherefore of the chastening rod? | |
| That mercy’s tenderness our hearts enshrine | |
| Are we uplifted to the heights divine? | |
| Cleansed from the idol worship of our pride, | |
| White robed humility be teaching guide; | 35 |
| And Israel’s heart of kinship link the hands, | |
| Of the compassionate throughout all lands. | |
| The righteousness of freedom, understood | |
| Bind all of life in one vast brotherhood. | |
| |
