The Sifting Of Peter

In St. Luke's Gospel we are told     How Peter in the days of old             Was sifted;     And now, though ages intervene,     Sin is the same, while time and scene             Are shifted.     Satan desires us, great and small,     As wheat to sift us, and we all             Are tempted;     Not one, however rich or great,     Is by his station or estate             Exempted.     No house so safely guarded is     But he, by some device of his,             Can enter;     No heart hath armor so complete     But he can pierce with arrows fleet             Its centre.     For all at last the cock will crow,     Who hear the warning voice, but go             Unheeding,     Till thrice and more they have denied     The Man of Sorrows, crucified             And bleeding.     One look of that pale suffering face     Will make us feel the deep disgrace             Of weakness;     We shall be sifted till the strength     Of self-conceit be changed at length             To meekness.     Wounds of the soul, though healed will ache;     The reddening scars remain, and make             Confession;     Lost innocence returns no more;     We are not what we were before             Transgression.     But noble souls, through dust and heat,     Rise from disaster and defeat             The stronger,     And conscious still of the divine     Within them, lie on earth supine             No longer.