Julia Abigail Fletcher Carney (1823 – 1908)
Born Julia Fletcher, was an American Universalist educator and poet, whose works began to be published when she was 14, and who later wrote under various pseudonyms.
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Speak kindly to the erring;
Thou yet may'st lead them back,
With holy words and tones of love,
From misery's thorny track.
Forget not thou hast often sinned.
And sinful yet must be;
Deal gently with the erring one,
As God hath dealt with thee.
Little deeds of kindness,
Little words of love,
Make our pleasant earth below
Like the heaven above.
Little drops of water,
Little grains of sand,
Make the mighty ocean
And the pleasant land.
How near another's heart we oft may stand,
Yet all unknowing what we fain would know
Its heights of joy, its depths of bitter woe,
As, wrecked upon some desert island's strand,
They watch our white sails near and nearer grow;
Then we, who for their rescue death would dare,
Unheeding pass, and leave them to despair.
How oft the word which we would gladly speak
Might be, unto some darkly groping soul,
The key to bid doubt's massive doors unroll,
The free winds' breath upon the prisoner's cheek,
Or. to the hungry heart, sweet pity's dole!
We hurry on, nor know that they are near,
As passed Evangeline the one so dear.
Speak gently to the erring:
For is it not enough
That innocence and peace have gone,
Without thy censure rough?
Think gently of the erring:
Ye know not of the power
With which the dark temptation came
In some unguarded hour.
Ye may not know how earnestly
They struggled, or how well,
Until the hour of weakness came,
And sadly thus they fell.
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