<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="" class="head">Rewards</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">YOU who wait on the Lord</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">You who pray for a prize,</p><p class="line">You who claim a reward,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Have you nor ears, nor eyes?</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Have you nor hands, nor feet,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Have you nor wife, nor son?</p><p class="line">If greater reward be meet,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">What have you said or done,</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">To merit a further grace?</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">O you have kept from sin!--</p><p class="line">Kept from the tight embrace</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Of the devil's snare and gin.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Your deeds had a righteous shape,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Yet they were not done well;</p><p class="line">You did them but to escape</p><p class="line">From the pangs and the pains of Hell,</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And were ready to leave a wife,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Or a son, or a friend behind,</p><p class="line">And enter eternal life</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">To your own fair soul assigned.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Not Love, not Love was the root</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And the source of your noble deeds:</p><p class="line">Love has its own sweet fruit,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Never reward it needs.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Love could never agree</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">To the creed you hold as true--</p><p class="line">A hell for such as me,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">A heaven for such as you.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The hell only I wot</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Is such a creed to hold,</p><p class="line">And such hell is not hot,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">But narrow, and mean, and cold.</p><p class="line">Reward! You have life, and limb,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">You have heart, and brain, and breath,</p><p class="line">And soon when your eyes grow dim</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">You will have the repose of death.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Best let rewards alone,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Sir Benjamin Pharisee,</p><p class="line">And pray that mercy be shown</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">To sinners like you and me.</p></div></body></html> · Great War