Ada Cambridge - The Future Verdict

How will our unborn children scoff at us
In the good years to come —
The happier years to come —
For that, like driven sheep, we yielded thus,
Before the shearers dumb!

I know the words their wiser lips will say; —
“These men had gained the light,
These women knew the right;
They had their chance and let it slip away.
They did not when they might.

“They were the first to hear the gospel preached,
And to believe therein —
Yet they remained in sin;
They saw the Promised Land they might have reached,
And dared not enter in.

“They might have won their freedom, had they tried;
No savage laws forbade —
For them the way was made.
“They might have had the joys for which they cried;
And yet they shrank, afraid.

“Afraid to face an honourable shame,
The most they had to pay —
Of what the world would say —
Not of the martyr's portion, rack and flame.
Great God! what fools were they!”

And oh! could we look backward from those years
When we have ceased to be,
This wasted chance to see,
Should we not also cry, with bitter tears,
“Alas! what fools were we!”

Ada Cambridge

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-future-verdict-2/