ST. SIMEON STYLITES. ALTHO' I be the basest of mankind, From scalp to sole one slough and crust of sin, I will not cease to grasp the hope I hold Of saintdom, and to clamour, mourn and sob, Battering the gates of heaven with storms of prayer, Have mercy, Lord, and take away my sin. Let this avail, just, dreadful, mighty God, This not be all in vain, that thrice ten years, Thrice multiplied by superhuman pangs, In hungers and in thirsts, fevers and cold, In coughs, aches, stitches, ulcerous throes and cramps, A sign betwixt the meadow and the cloud, Patient on this tall pillar I have borne Rain, wind, frost, heat, hail, damp, and sleet, and snow; And I had hoped that ere this period closed The meed of saints, the white robe and the palm. Than were those lead-like tons of sin, that crush'd O Lord, Lord, Thou knowest I bore this better at the first, For I was strong and hale of body then; And though my teeth, which now are dropt away, I drown'd the whoopings of the owl with sound Now am I feeble grown: my end draws nigh— While my stiff spine can hold my weary head, O Jesus, if thou wilt not save my soul, Who may be saved? who is it may be saved? Who may be made a saint, if I fail here? Show me the man hath suffer'd more than I. For did not all thy martyrs die one death? For either they were stoned, or crucified, Or burn'd in fire, or boil'd in oil, or sawn In twain beneath the ribs; but I die here To-day, and whole years long, a life of death. Bear witness, if I could have found a way (And heedfully I sifted all my thought) More slowly-painful to subdue this home. Of sin, my flesh, which I despise and hate, I had not stinted practice, O my God. For not alone this pillar-punishment, Not this alone I bore: but while I lived In the white convent down the valley there, The rope that haled the buckets from the well, Until the ulcer, eating through my skin, To touch my body and be heal'd, and live: And they say then that I work'd miracles, Thou, O God, Knowest alone whether this was or no. Have mercy, mercy; cover all my sin. Then, that I might be more alone with thee, Six cubits, and three years on one of twelve; That numbers forty cubits from the soil. I think that I have borne as much as this Or else I dream-and for so long a time, If I may measure time by yon slow light, And this high dial, which my sorrow crowns- And yet I know not well, For that the evil ones come here, and say, "Fall down, O Simeon: thou hast suffer'd long For ages and for ages!" then they prate Of penances I cannot have gone thro', |