  [The following poem was read by Dr. Vincent on the morning of August 25, 1884, at the closing exercises of the Chautauqua Assembly. This poem Dr. Vincent has read at the close of several Assemblies, and always with marked effect.] I sat alone with my conscience, In a place where time had ceased, And we talked of my former living In the land where the years increased; And felt I should have to answer The question it put to me, And to face the answer and question, Throughout an eternity. The ghost of forgotten actions Came floating before my sight, And things that I thought were dead things Were alive with a terrible might; And the vision of all my past life Was an awful thing to face, Alone with my conscience sitting In that solemnly silent place. And I thought of a far-away warning Of a sorrow that was to be mine, In a land that there was the future, But now is the present time; And I thought of my former thinking, Of the judgment day to be; But sitting alone with my conscience Seemed judgment enough for me. And I wondered if there was a future To this land, beyond the grave; But no one gave me an answer, And no one came to save. Then I felt that the future was present, And the present would never go by, For it was the thought of my past life Grown into eternity. Then I woke from my timely dreaming And the vision passed away. And I pray that I may not forget it In this land before the grave; That I may not cry in the future, And no one come to save. And so I have learned a lesson Which I ought to have known before, And which, though I learned it dreaming, I hope to forget no more. So I sit alone with my conscience, In the place where the years increase, And I try to remember the future In the land where time will cease. And I know of the future judgment, How dreadful soe’er it may be, That to sit alone with my conscience Will be judgment enough for me. |
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