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there. "Brother," he said, "I have healed the woodland things And they go happy and whole--blessing Love's ministerings, "And, having healed them, I shall crave your leave To leave you--for to-night I journey far. But I have kept your gate this Easter Eve, And now your house to heaven shines like a star To show the Angels where God's children are; And in this day your house has served God more Than in the praise and prayer of all its years before. "Yet I must leave you, though I fain would stay, For there are other gates I go to keep Of houses round whose walls, long day by day, Shut out of hope and love, poor sinners weep-- Barred folds that keep out God's poor wandering sheep-- I must teach these that gates where God comes in Must not be shut at all to pain, or want, or sin. "The voice of prayer is very soft and weak, And sorrow and sin have voices very strong; Prayer is not heard in heaven when those twain speak, The voice of prayer faints in the voice of wrong By the just man endured--oh, Lord, how long?-- If ye would have your prayers in heaven be heard, Look that wrong clamour not with too intense a word. "But when true love is shed on want and sin, Their cry is changed, and grows to such a voice As clamours sweetly at heaven to be let in-- Such sound as makes the saints in heaven rejoice; Pure gold of prayer, purged of the vain alloys Of idleness--that is the sound most dear Of all the earthly sounds God leans from heaven to hear. "Oh, brother, I must leave thee, and for me The work is heavy, and the burden great. Thine be this charge I lay upon thee: See That never again stands barred thy abbey gate; Look that God's poor be not left desolate; Ah me! that chidden my shepherds needs must be When my poor wandering sheep have so great need of me. "Brother, forgive thy Brother if he chide, Thy Brother loves thee--and has loved--for see The nails are in my hands, and in my side The spear-wound; and the thorns weigh heavily Upon my brow--brother, I died for thee-- For thee, and for my sheep that are astray, And rose to live for thee, and them, on Easter Day!" "My Master and my Lord!" the Abbot cried. But, where that face had been, shone the new day; Only on the marble by the Abbot's side, Where those dear feet had stood, a lily lay-- A lily white for the white Easter Day. He sought the gate--n
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