She was a woman, worn and thin, whom the world condemned for a
single sin; they cast her out of the king’s highway and passed
her by as they went to pray. He was a man, and more to blame,
but the world spared him a breath of shame; beneath his feet he
saw her lie, but he raised his head and passed her by. They were
the people who went to pray at the temple of God on the holy
day. They scorned the woman, forgave the man. It was ever thus
since the world began. Time passed on, and the woman died, on
the cross of shame was crucified; but the world was stern and
would not yield, and they buried her in the potter’s field. The
man died, too; and they buried him in a casket of cloth with a
silver rim, and said, as they turned from his grave away: “We’ve
buried an honest man to-day.” Two mortals knocked at heaven’s
gate and stood face to face to inquire their fate. He carried a
passport with earthly sign, and she a pardon from Love divine.
O, we who judge ’twixt virtue and vice, which think ye entered
paradise? Not he whom the world had said would win, for the
woman alone was ushered in.
(3486)