ALONE WITH MY CONSCIENCE.
I SAT alone with my conscience,
In a place where time has ceased,
And we talked of my former living
In the land where the years increased;
And I felt I should have to answer
The question it put to me;
And to face the answer and question
For all eternity. The ghosts of forgotten actions
Came floating before my sight,
And things that I thought were dead things,
Were alive with a terrible might. And the vision of all my past life
Was an awful thing to face—
Alone with my conscience sitting
In this solemnly silent place.
And I thought of a far-away warning
Of sorrow that was to mine,
In a land that was then the future,
But now is the present time.
And I thought of my former warning
Of the judgment day to be,
But sitting alone with my conscience
Seemed judgment enough for me. And I wondered if there was a future
To this land beyond the grave,
But no one gave me an answer,
And no one came to save. Then I felt that the future was present,
And the present would never go by,
For it was but the thought of my past life
Grown into eternity.
Then I woke from my timely dreaming,
And the vision passed away,
And I knew the far-away warning
Was a warning of yesterday.
And I pray that I may not forget it,
In this land before the grave,
That I may not cry in the future,
And no one come to save. And so I have learned a lesson
Which I ought to have known before,
And which, though I learned it dreaming,
I hope to forget no more.
I sit alone with my conscience,
In the place where the years increase,
And I try to remember the future
In the land where time will cease;
And I know of the future judgment,
How dreadful soe'er it be,
That to sit alone with my conscience
Seems judgment enough for me.