TO “A CERTAIN RICH MAN” “I HAVE FIVE BRETHREN ... FATHER, I BESEECH THEE ... LEST THEY COME TO THIS PLACE”

St. Luke’s Gospel

Thou wouldst not part thy spoil

Gained from the beggar’s want, the weakling’s toil,

Nor spare a jot of sumptuousness or state

For Lazarus at the gate.

And in the appalling night

Of expiation, as in day’s delight,

Thou heldst thy niggard hand; it would not share

One hour of thy despair.

Those five—thy prayer for them!

O generous! who, condemned, wouldst not condemn,

Whose ultimate human greatness proved thee so

A miser of thy woe.

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