RETROSPECT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume I, Issue 4, 4 October 1879, Page 4

RETROSPECT.

I sat alone with my conscience, In a place where time had ceased. And we talked of my former being In a land where the years increased.

And I felt I should have to answer The question it put to me, And face the answer and question Throughout 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 that solemnly silent place.

And I thought of a far away warning, Of a sorrow that was to be mine, In a land that then was the future, But now was the present time.

And I thought of my former thinking Of the judgment day to be— But sitting alone with my conscience Seemed judgment enough to me.

And I wondered if there was a future : To this land beyond the grave ; But no one came to answer, 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 awoke from my timely dreaming, And the vision faded away ; And I knew that 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.

Now I have learned a lesson, Which I ought to have known before, And which, though I learned it in dream--I’ll remember evermore. [ing

So 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 shall cease.

And I know of the future judgment, Then whensoe’er it be To sit alone with my conscience Will be judgment enough for me. —London Spectrtor.