Page:Marlborough and other poems, Sorley, 1919.djvu/72

 XVIII

THE SEEKERS

gates are open on the road

That leads to beauty and to God.

Perhaps the gates are not so fair,

Nor quite so bright as once they were,

When God Himself on earth did stand

And gave to Abraham His hand

And led him to a better land.

For lo! the unclean walk therein,

And those that have been soiled with sin.

The publican and harlot pass

Along: they do not stain its grass.

In it the needy has his share,

In it the foolish do not err.

Yes, spurned and fool and sinner stray

Along the highway and the way.

And what if all its ways are trod

By those whom sin brings near to God?

This journey soon will make them clean:

Their faith is greater than their sin.

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