“The Simple Creed of Christ”

 

“Have I not worked, O God? 
Have I not toiled and borne? 
Sackcloth for secret sin 
Have I not worn? 
“Have I not dwelt and knelt 
In bitterness alone― 
Eating my Dead-Sea fruit― 
And made no moan? 
“Have I not plead for strength 
My punishment to bear, 
Pressing my heart’s wild cry 
Thro’ midnight air? 
“Night after night, O God, 
Have I not laid me prone, 
Brow bent upon the floor― 
Yet made no moan? 
“The stony way thou gavest 
Have I not bravely trod? 
Have I breathed one reproach, 
O God, O God? 
“Hast Thou e’er known my feet 
The cruelest thorn to shun? 
Have I not bled, and said― 
Thy will be done’? 
“Yea, when the deepest hurt 
Festered in my heart’s core, 
‘This I deserved,’ I said; 
‘All this―and more.’ 
“In my supremist pain, 
Repentance and despair, 
My deepest plea has been 
For strength to bear. 
“Strength to endure my sin 
And eat its fruits, and live― 
This and the wilder cry 
Of ‘Lord, forgive!’ 
“What more can I do, God, 
To win from pain release? 
What more, O God, what more 
For peace, for peace?” 
So prayed the woman. Pale 
Was she, and thin and worn, 
And hollow-browed and eyed, 
And passion-torn. 
And―“Child,” God answered her, 
“When first thou asked of me― 
Truly repenting all 
I forgave thee. 
“One more thing thou must have, 
And that is Faith. Deplore 
Thy sins no longer. Go 
And sin no more.” 
 
 
“The Simple Creed of Christ” as it appears in Higginson’s When the Birds Go North Again (1898).