Page:The poems of Emma Lazarus volume 1.djvu/150

136 Once more my wandering thoughts were calmly ranged, Shepherded by my will. I wept, I prayed A solemn prayer, conceived in agony, Blessed with response instant, miraculous; For in that hour my spirit was at one With Him who knows and satisfies her needs. The supplication and the blessing sprang From the same source, inspired divinely both. I prayed for light, self-knowledge, guidance, truth, And these like heavenly manna were rained down To feed my hungered soul. His guilt was mine. What angel had been sent to stay mine arm the fateful moment passed away That would have ushered an eternity Of withering remorse ? I found the germs In mine own heart of every human sin. That waited but occasion s tempting breath To overgrow with poisoned bloom my life. What God thus far had saved me from myself ? Here was the lofty truth revealed, that each Must feel himself in all, must know where’er The great soul acts or suffers or enjoys, His proper soul in kinship there is bound. Then my life-purpose dawned upon my mind, Encouraging as morning. As I lay, Crushed by the weight of universal love, Which mine own thoughts had heaped upon myself,