PRAYER OF THE ABOLITIONIST - James Brunton Stephens Poems

 
 

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PRAYER OF THE ABOLITIONIST

WE ask not that the slave should lie,
  As lies his master, at his ease,
Beneath a silken canopy,
  Or in the shade of blooming trees.

We mourn not that the man should toil;
  'T is nature's need -- 't is God's decree;
But, let the hand that tills the soil,
  Be, like the wind that fans it, free.

We ask not 'eye for eye' -- that all,
  Who forge the chain and ply the whip,
Should feel their torture -- that the thrall
  Should wield the scourge of mastership --

We only ask, O God, that they,
  Who bind a brother, may relent:
But, GREAT AVENGER, we do pray
  That the wrong-doer may repent.