There remaineth the will of our God: when He repenteth of His creature,
Made by self-suggested mercy, ransomed by self-sacrificing justice,—
When Truth, that swore unto his neighbour, disappointeth him, and cleaveth to a lie,—
When the counsels of Wisdom are confounded, and Love warreth with itself,—
When the Unchangeable is changed, and the arm of Omnipotence is broken,—
Then,—thy quenchless soul shall have reached the goal of its existence.
But it seemeth to thy notions of the merciful and just, a false and fearful thing,
To lay such a burden upon time, that eternity be built on its foundation:
As if so casual good or ill should colour all the future,
And the vanity of accident, or sternness of necessity, save or wreck a soul.