[Editor: This poem by L. E. Homfray was published in The Bush Brother (Dubbo, NSW), July 1915.]
Lost Opportunities.
We do not need the hand outstretched,
We turn with scornful words away,
But, in that day, and in that hour,
Our golden chance has gone for aye.
We keep unspoken in our hearts
The words of love we might have said,
Until, in agony of grief
We kneel beside the silent dead.
We pass the fallen sinner by,
Not seeing, in our worldly pride
Beneath the poor degraded life
A soul for whom the Shepherd died.
But in the sinless eyes of One
Their souls are precious in His sight.
And even those poor erring hearts
May yet be victors in the fight.
We think so much of wealth and fame,
Each passing pleasure has its day,
That ere the evening shadows fall
Our golden chance has gone for aye.
L. E. HOMFRAY.
Source:
The Bush Brother (Dubbo, NSW), July 1915, pp. 325-326
Editor’s notes:
The Bush Brother was a religious publication, which described itself as “A Quarterly Paper conducted by Members of the Brotherhood of the Good Shepherd.” The Brotherhood was “A Society, consisting of Clergy and Laity of the Church of England, formed for the purpose of Ministering to the Spiritual needs of the Dwellers in the Bush Districts of the Bathurst Diocese.”
aye = always, forever
ere = (archaic) before (from the Middle English “er”, itself from the Old English “aer”, meaning early or soon)
erring = the action of someone who errs, i.e. someone making an error, mistake, or misjudgment; doing something which is considered wrong; going astray, straying (especially from a good moral path, or from society’s standards); committing a sin, sinning
His = in a religious context, and capitalized, a reference to God or Jesus
Shepherd = in a religious context, and often capitalized, usually a reference to Jesus or God; the term commonly refers to Jesus, but it has also been used with regards to God, e.g. “The Lord is my shepherd”, in Psalm 23, in the Book of Psalms in the Old Testament of the Bible (Psalm 22 in the Latin Vulgate Bible); the phrase “Good Shepherd” is a reference to Jesus, based upon John 10:11-15 in the New Testament of the Bible, where Jesus refers to himself as “the good shepherd”; the pastor, priest, reverend, or spiritual leader of a church congregation may also be referred to as a “shepherd”
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