The Poetical Works of Robert Montgomery :: :: University of Virginia Library

Pure glory of forgiving Love!
Whose archetype exists above
In God the reconciled;
By nine degrees of soaring worth
May our wing'd souls ascend from earth
To Thee, the undefiled.

Bootless are sacramental Forms,
If in our hearts the hectic storms
Of sullen anger dwell;
Angels in mien, but Cains in mind,
Men dare to dream their God too blind
To see their bosom-hell!

No mortal hate with love divine
Can ever in one soul combine,—
Deceit must both deprave;
For love is that seraphic glow
Which cannot chill before a foe,
But tracks him to the grave.

Proud thoughts create a mental war
Nor let us see the truth we are,
But hide from Self our sin;
Aloud men cry o'er wrongs they feel,
But all the wrongs they do, conceal
Like pharisees within.

Could we ourselves as clearly scan
As we unshroud our brother man,
How humbly might we walk!
And never in the maddest hour
When vile self-worship wields its power,
Of our meek virtues talk.

Let Conscience learn, the sharpest word
Our ulcerated pride has heard
Is tender, more than true;
Since all that envious eyes can see,
Is pure to what Divinity
In man's vain heart can view.

Thy temper soothe, thou ireful one!
Nor ever may the west'ring sun
Go down upon thy wrath;
Thy brother seek, each fault confess,
And with sad tones of mild distress
Win all the love he hath.

If by cold word, or thought, or deed
Thy heart has caused his own to bleed,
Promptly that ill repair;
Nor dream that thus to condescend,
Will one dark hue of meanness blend
With aught thou feelest there.

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But if in soul, a sullen thought
With scowling pride of anger fraught
Toward friend or foe remain,
Presume not, where Christ's altar stands
To offer with polluted hands
What Heaven must so disdain.

First to a brother give thy heart;
Let bitterness of soul depart,
And then, that meal partake
Where Love Incarnate bleeds and dies
In His memorial sacrifice,
Presented for thy sake.

Fathom thy deeps of sinful mind,
Keen to thyself, to others blind,—
Be this thy noble plan!
Beneath enamell'd smiles and ways
Let Conscience dart her searching rays,
And thou wilt pity man.

Self-ignorance makes the spirit proud,
And o'er clear error casts a cloud
Of flatt'ry's genial power;
But Self-illumed by heaven's own ray
Can melt that painted mist away,
And humble ev'ry hour.

Vain hypocrites, and worse than vile
If passions dark our soul defile
And fiendish thoughts are nursed,
While outwardly in church and creed
We call ourselves a “holy seed,”
By God we are accursed!

Heaven's lineage must heaven's likeness wear,
And not alone by praise and prayer
Authentic worship prove;
When Faith beholds her God of grace,
The brightest Feature she can trace
Is that which glows with love.

Then, grant us, Lord, a heart like Thine
As deep in mercy, as divine,
Celestial, mild, and true;
And learn we all, the more we live,
The godlike must like God forgive
All daring Wrong can do.

Creation seems instinct with love,
A parable of His above,
Father, and Friend of all;
And not a rain-drop Earth renews
And not a sunbeam lights her hues
Which does not grace recall.

O'er just and unjust, what a shower
Of raining mercies falls each hour,
Bought by atoning Blood!
From Whose vast merit all that is,
Derives each energizing bliss
Which makes our common good.

Two Bibles thus our hearts may teach
A pure sublime of man to reach,
In love for friend and foe,
Since Nature, like the Gospel, pours
O'er “good and evil” all her stores,
That each may Godhead know.