JUSTUS JUDEX

* I judge no man.

* God sent not the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. He that believeth on Him is not judged: he that believeth not hath been judged already, because he hath not believed.

THERE came three men of the latter age, and stood at Peter's gate,
And searched through all the courts of Heaven to find some advocate;
The Eternal Father shook His head: "I know not who they be . . .
I never have heard in all their heart one thought of love to Me.

"How sayest thou, Lady Mary, that wast the carpenter's wife,
Did they lose the vision of All that Is in the little cares of life?"
"Alas! alas! their hearts were barred from the hallowed, humble things . . .
I have no knowledge of them before Thee, King of kings."

The Father looked on all the Saints, from Paul to Magdalene,
That wit so well what a sinner is, from the sinners that they have been,
But every eye was casten down, and dumb was every lip,
The Saints know nothing of any man that scorns man's fellowship.

Then fear came over those flaccid men: "Thou wilt not damn us thus?
We led such pretty, delightsome lives . . . will no man speak for us?"
The Father furrowed His brow in doubt: "It may be there is one . . .
Canst Thou find aught to say for these, Prince Jesus, My meek Son?"

O then up rose Prince Jesus Christ, the fieriest Lord in Heaven,
His feet clear as the burning brass among the candles seven,
His words were swifter than edged swords, they were more sharp than wine:
"Though My Father and mother cast them off, I claim the men for Mine.

"How shall I say I know not these, when these knew me so well,
They stormed all day on the doors of Heaven to drag Me out to hell?
They were blind to the banners and deaf to song, they drowsed beside the ships,
But the call of the Cross could startle them up with fury on their lips.

"They caught like babes with witless hands at the Babylonian beast;
They cast the cloak of their patronage on the blank creeds of the East,
Where God shrinks down to a shrivelling point, and all things shrink with Him;
They bowed to Amon-ra for a jest, to Isis for a whim;

"They called on the Dwellers beneath the Door, and knew not what they did;
They filched the magic of ageless gods from the guarded pyramid;
They fashioned them bracelets of sacred jade, and brooches of scarab-wings;
They babbled the names unspeakable of strong and merciless Things;

"And they set the soft, fierce Cyprian in the chambers, and took no note
If the bond of Baal was on their breast, the phallus upon their throat;
But they hated and feared the crucifix, and they could not pass it by,
But thrust it forth with spitting and sneers, for they knew that I am I.

"I walk in the world in judgment, to sunder and not condemn;
There be none so sunk and sodden but I lay My hand on them,
And if yet in the palsied body one answering pulse can leap,
Whether to love or hatred, they are not dead but sleep.

"Therefore I swear, O Father and God, I swear by Thy mighty throne,
With the blood that was shed on Calvary I bought them for Mine own;
It shall dye them with shame and scarlet, it shall sear them as burning coals,
For they spilt and trampled it into the mire, and it shall save their souls.

"Unbar the gates, good Peter, and for twice a thousand years
Let them writhe 'neath the rod of My pity and the insult of My tears,
Till hate is bound to the wheels of love, and sin is made My slave,
And I bring Mine own from the deep again, My dead back from the grave."