Poems (Hoffman)/The Answered Petition

by Martha Lavinia Hoffman

THE ANSWERED PETITION

From the noonday cloud hung over the lone mount of Calvary
Hark! a human voice that speaketh in its human misery
From a bursting heart that throbbeth in its mortal agony:
"When thou cometh to thy kingdom, Lord, remember me."

Listen in soft notes of music upward floating to the skies,
Where the sun his glorious splendor to a guilty world denies;
Lo, a voice of matchless sweetness to the prayer of faith replies,
Gently saying: "This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise."

O my soul's lone cross of torture! O my guilt and agony!
Gazing upward through the darkness, lo, another cross I see
Close beside it in the shadow, this my spirit's only plea:
"Jesus, Jesus, in thy kingdom, oh, remember me!"

And from that lone cross of anguish where for you and me He dies,
While the sun his glorious splendor to a guilty world denies,
In low tones of love and mercy lo, that holy voice replies
Gently saying: "This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise."

For a thousand years of waiting in His sight are as a day,
At whose word, eternal ages, all unmeasured glide away;
While before His cross of crosses all our weight of care we lay
Evermore in faith believing with the dying thief to pray:

"Jesus, Jesus, I am trusting, trusting only thee;
Jesus, Jesus, in Thy kingdom, oh remember me!"
While in wondrous love and mercy still that holy voice replies,
Gently saying: "This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise."