The Great Hereafter.

Will the wrongs of life be righted, Fruited there the hopes here blighted, In the great hereafter? Will the darkened lives be lighted And dissevered souls united In the great hereafter? Will this wearing, wild commotion Sink to rest and sweet emotion Calm all strife hereafter? Will love’s slighted, fond devotion Reach beyond life’s tossing ocean To the great hereafter? Will the vows here lightly broken With repentant tears be spoken In the great hereafter? The wounded one accept the token Of the heart’s remorse unspoken In the great hereafter? Gladly from its idols turning Will the soul forget its yearning In the great hereafter? Thro’ a quickened sense discerning That the labors we’ve been spurning Keep love’s holy incense burning In the great hereafter? Shall we find that hopes deceiving Helped us on to grand achieving In the great hereafter? And be blest with glad receiving What is now but faith, believing In the great hereafter? Will the soul that’s drunk the vial Of a bitter self-denial Feel the loss hereafter? Or, thro’ sacrifice and trial, Will it triumph o’er Belial, In the great hereafter? Will the bands by dogmas riven Scathed and scarred by anger levin, Make a peaceful, joyous Heaven In the great hereafter? For the good for which they’ve striven Will their errors be forgiven In the great hereafter? There, with pomp, his work resuming Will the bigot, still presuming, God’s prerogative assuming In the great hereafter, Sit as judge, his brother dooming, And with creed-lit torch reluming Fires of torture “unconsuming,” Through the great hereafter? Will the Wrong, the Right assailing, Wring from suffering helpless wailing In the great hereafter?— Conquered Good, with banners trailing, Seeking streams for Hope’s regaling, Be mirage-lured, till faint and failing, Faith becomes a phantom, sailing Through the great hereafter? Or, shall our spirit eyes beholding God’s mysterious plans unfolding In the great hereafter, See His strength the Right upholding And his love the weak enfolding In the great hereafter? Struggling here with opposition, Gives, perchance, the strong volition Some may need for angel mission, In the great hereafter; And the ills of life’s condition, To the tried may bring fruition Of a joyous, sweet elysian In the great hereafter. What has seemed Fate’s unfair dealing, May unveil, a joy revealing In the great hereafter: Though denying our appealing, Made in agony of feeling, God may still, with love’s own healing, Higher destiny, be sealing For the Great Hereafter.