Poems (Greenwell)/The Eternal Now

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THE ETERNAL NOW. 
 "For one day with thee is as a thousand years, and a thousand year's as one day."
"Now have I won a marvel and a Truth;" So spake the soul and trembled, "dread and ruth Together mixed, a sweet and bitter core Closed in one rind; for I did sin of yore, But this (so said I oft) was long ago; So put it from me far away, but, lo! With Thee is neither After nor Before, O Lord, and clear within the noon-light set Of one illimitable Present, yet Thou lookest on my fault as it were now. So will I mourn and humble me; yet Thou Art not as man that oft forgives a wrong Because he half forgets it. Time being strong To wear the crimson of guilt's stain away; For Thou, forgiving, dost so in the Day That shows it clearest, in the boundless Sea Of Mercy and Atonement, utterly Casting our pardoned trespasses behind. No more remembered, or to come in mind; Set wide from us as East from West away: ​So now this bitter turns to solace kind; And I will comfort me that once of old A deadly sorrow struck me, and its cold Runs through me still; but this was long ago. My grief is dull through age, and friends outworn, And wearied comforters have long forborne To sit and weep beside me: Lord, yet Thou Dost look upon my pang as it were now!"
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