Nor God, nor Christ, nor angels ever close
The gates of pearl, but ever open wide,
Inviting all to peace and sweet repose,
And loving angels greet the coming tide;
No temple towers within the hea­ven­ly light
Reflected in the golden streets so bright!

Each sad, repentant prodigal shall come,
And his good Father will that soul forgive;
All the heart broken shall at least reach home,
Look in the Savior’s face, be healed and live;
There’ll be rejoicing among angels bright
As each poor wanderer enters into light!

Within the jasper walls there is no night,
And there they need no candle, sun or star;
For God and Christ are the unfailing light
To guide the groping wand’rer from afar;
And each lost soul, however sad his lot,
Shall yet be found by One who fainteth not!

Tho’ earth may pass, there’ll be no anxious morrow;
For one immortal NOW shall e’er remain;
No cloud shall dim that day with hopeless sorrow;
For wand’rers then shall hear the glad refrain:
It is always NOW in this better clime!
Behold, Now, NOW is the Accepted Time!

For Je­sus said, Ye must be born again!
Thou shalt love God and every neighbor love!
These prophecies, fulfilled in all, shall reign
When great Jehovah bears His arm above;
No place made He to foster vice in men;
For God, through Christ, shall make an end of sin!

To those, who disbelieve God’s great salvation
Beyond the gates of death, what rapture theirs
When they shall learn that God, in every station,
Still hates all sin throughout unending years!
And will not suffer us to rest in sin,
But in all souls the cleansing work begin!

For God hates every sin with boundless wrath,
And so shall banish vice from every soul,
And all shall walk within His hallowed path,
And pure and spotless reach the final goal.
The last poor wand’rer gladly tread the way
That leads from sinful dark to heav’nly day!

Alexander Streeter Arnold
Poems, 1915