"Except ye repent"

BEN. HAWORTH-BOOTH

How oft upon the fretful voice of ocean
Have I not heard the carping, canting quest,
How would ye heal by your divine devotion
If ye should fall — as fall perchance the best —
And break some bone? How would ye bide the test?
Long as ye sail upon the summer seas
To wafting zephyrs of the golden west
Your path is easy, but away flies ease
When bones are broke: how meet ye woes like these?

'Tis said in Holy Writ of him who died
To teach mankind to live, "A bone of him
Shall not be broken": though they pierced his side,
His gentle hands, his feet, they broke no limb:
And all who follow through the darkness dim
His sacred pathway — all who drink the wine,
The bitter dregs upon his goblet's brim,
From direful accident have help divine:
The promise is for all, 'tis yours, 'tis mine.

But though they were not sinners worst of all
Who fell beneath the falling bastion stone
When sank Siloam's tower in Salem's wall,
Yet were they sinners; and like fate is prone,
Except we do repent, to cast each one
To dark destruction. O protecting might!
Help us to guard each thought, each word, each tone,
To walk as pilgrims in this weltering night,
So may no foes appal, no fearful chance affright.