When So­dom’s rich but guil­ty plains
To wrath di­vine were doomed,
Abr’am the pa­tri­arch in­ter­posed
And thus his plea as­sumed.

“Shall good and bad to­ge­ther fall
And un­dis­ting­uished lie?
Far be this ev­er from the God
That rules above the sky.

Shall not the Judge of all the earth
Whom right­eous acts de­light;
Shall not the spring whence jus­tice flows
Do ev­er what is right?

Thus did the ho­ly pa­tri­arch plead
When zeal, with pi­ty warm;
And saw with joy just Lot pre­served
From the sul­fur­ous storm.

Let God in wrath de­stroy a land,
Or drown in floods a world;
Guilty they were and did de­serve
In ru­in to be hurled.

What tho’ the faint some­times may smart
Beneath a hea­vi­er rod?
He that in­flicts the blow is still
A just and right­eous God.

The ways of Hea­ven, dark as they seem,
Are not with­out their light;
The last, that bright­est day of truth
Will show that all is right.