to them on his right hand,
Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from
the foundation of the world. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me
meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took
me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in
prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him,
saying, Lord, when saw we _thee_ an hungered, and fed _thee_? or
thirsty, and gave _thee_ drink? When saw we _thee_ a stranger, and took
_thee_ in? or naked, and clothed _thee_? Or when saw we _thee_ sick, or
in prison, and came unto _thee_? And the King shall answer, and say unto
them, Verily I say unto you, _Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of
the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me_.

"Then shall he say unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye
cursed. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty,
and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; sick,
and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they answer him,
saying, Lord, when saw we _thee_ an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger,
or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then
shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, _Inasmuch as ye did
it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me_."

After spending the greater portion of his life in many distant climes
in a fruitless endeavor to find the Cup of the Holy Grail,[C] thinking
that thereby he was doing the greatest service he could for God, Sir
Launfal at last returns an old man, gray-haired and bent. He finds that
his castle is occupied by others, and that he himself is an outcast. His
cloak is torn; and instead of the charger in gilded trappings he was
mounted upon when as a young man, he started out with great hopes and
ambitions, he is afoot and leaning on a staff. While sitting there and
meditating, he is met by the same poor and needy leper he passed the
morning he started, the one who in his need asked for aid, and to whom
he had flung a coin in scorn, as he hurried on in his eager desire to be
in the Master's service. But matters are changed now, and he is a wiser
man. Again the poor leper says:--

"'For Christ's sweet sake, I beg an alms';--
The happy camels may reach the spring,
But Sir Launfal sees only the grewsome thing,
The leper, lank as the rain-blanched bone,
That cowers beside him, a thing as lone