Chapter XIII

They would scratch him up--they would hang him again
on the cursèd tree.
Sin? O yes--we are sinners, I know--let all that be,
And read me a Bible verse of the Lord's good will toward men--
"Full of compassion and mercy, the Lord"--let me hear it again;
"Full of compassion and mercy--long-suffering." Yes, O yes!
For the lawyer is born but to murder--the Saviour lives but to bless.
_He_'ll never put on the black cap except for the
worst of the worst,
And the first may be last--I have heard it in church--
and the last may be first.
Suffering--O long-suffering--yes, as the Lord must know,
Year after year in the mist and the wind and the shower and the snow.