Poem November 9, 1940 Issue

Love Pays the Debt

EMILY PATTERSON SPEAR

ALL day, dear Father, I have watched Thy sheep,
Striving with tireless love each one to keep.
For those who strayed, and lost the narrow way,
I searched, and found before the close of day.
I called my brother, "Can you not forbear
One idle hour, my toilsome work to share?
Or, if you will not, see, the harvest white
Is waiting reapers, and near comes the night."
My brother answered not, but whiled away
The long, bright hours of the harvest day.
Say then, shall he, no garnered sheaves piled high,
Receive the earned wage the same as I?

My son, the Father said, thy brother paid
Full dearly for the slothful ease he had,
But when he heard Love's urgent call, Love's plea,
He answered back, "Lord, here am I, send me."
And when he came contrite and humbly brought
His gift of love, ah, then, his sin was not!
Love cancels all. Love pays the debt of sin,
And he who loves may truly "enter in."