Page:Poems Shipton.djvu/85

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A whisper floated by me,
"Behold, he walks in darkness!
A murmurer who wanders
 Beneath deserved wrath."

I said, "O heart, take courage!
Christ met thy worst deservings;
Why dost thou fret and murmur?
 Thine enemy is fled.
Rise up! be strong, be faithful,
Thy Father watches o'er thee.
The sky has changed; but wherefore
 Art thou thyself so sad?"

Cried my Accuser, "Rebel
Against such grace and mercy!
Wert thou a child of heaven,
 Now would thy help appear:
Cease then to cry, 'My Father.'"
And the wild rocks round me echoed,
'Mid the roaring of the torrent,
 "Thy Father will not hear."

I looked into the darkness,
Then upward to the mountain;
I knew the fiend's false whisper,
 In the silence drear and chill: