Page:The Souls of Black Folk (2nd ed).djvu/277

Rh chiefly paraphrases of the Bible. Three short series of verses have always attracted me,—the one that heads this chapter, of one line of which Thomas Wentworth Higginson has fittingly said, "Never, it seems to me, since man first lived and suffered was his infinite longing for peace uttered more plaintively." The second and third are descriptions of the Last Judgment,—the one a late improvisation, with some traces of outside influence:

Oh, the stars in the elements are falling,

And the moon drips away into blood,

And the ransomed of the Lord are returning unto God,

Blessed be the name of the Lord."

And the other earlier and homelier picture from the low coast lands:

Michael, haul the boat ashore,

Then you 'll hear the horn they blow,

Then you 'll hear the trumpet sound,

Trumpet sound the world around,

Trumpet sound for rich and poor,

Trumpet sound the Jubilee,

Trumpet sound for you and me."

Through all the sorrow of the Sorrow Songs there breathes a hope—a faith in the ultimate justice of things. The minor cadences of despair change often to triumph and calm confidence. Sometimes it is faith in life, sometimes a faith in death, sometimes assurance of boundless justice in some fair world beyond. But whichever it is, the meaning is always clear: that sometime, somewhere, men will judge men by their souls and not by their skins.