LAUS DEO
Epilogue
“Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
—Amen.”
Speak humbly of me, shouldst thou speak at all;
But, if thou must, think kindly
And even a little blindly;
Yet, brother, praise me not in great or small.
What I have done betwixt my God and me
Rests for His final sentence,
Past now beyond repentance;
Nor would I that it otherwise might be.
And if I ever sang in tune with Him
A note of Love's long story,
To Him alone the glory—
He was the Music, I the mouthpiece dim.
For Him I chanted, and I had no choice
But to work out His pleasure,
Though in a modest measure—
I was a broken reed, a jangled voice.
No praise for me, I ask no earthly fame;
But merely to be shriven
By silence, and forgiven—
If not in word, by God's withholden blame.
