“It is better to be lost than to be saved all alone.”
HENRI AMIEL.
WHAT! heaven all to one’s self and the rest of men shut out?
Better were hell than that, with a share in the common doom,
Than to bask and smile content, with never a fear and doubt,
In the vast, vast Paradise space with the countless flowers abloom.
To lie by the River of Life and see it run to waste,
To eat of the Tree of Heaven while the nations go unfed,
To taste the full salvation—the only one to taste—
To live while the rest are lost,—oh, better by far be dead!
For to share is the bliss of heaven, as it is the joy of earth,
And the unshared bread lacks savor, and the wine unshared lacks zest,
And the joy of the soul redeemed would be little, little worth,
If, content with its own security, it could forget the rest.