 | Romance and revery |  |
57
CHRIST.
As one may watch the vapors die
That shroud some greater star from sight,
Until its throbbing orb hangs white
In slumberous vaultages of sky,—
Even thus we watch retire and fly
All shadowing mists of empty creeds
That long have dimmed the immortal light
Of this man's golden words and deeds!
That shroud some greater star from sight,
Until its throbbing orb hangs white
In slumberous vaultages of sky,—
Even thus we watch retire and fly
All shadowing mists of empty creeds
That long have dimmed the immortal light
Of this man's golden words and deeds!
Man lofty and lone, yet Man no less,
Though eager nature at his birth
Had ampler dreams of human worth
To incite and thrill creativeness!
From awful urns beyond our guess
Draining that power none plies but she,
With holier elemental earth
She joined it, and the event was He!
Though eager nature at his birth
Had ampler dreams of human worth
To incite and thrill creativeness!
From awful urns beyond our guess
Draining that power none plies but she,
With holier elemental earth
She joined it, and the event was He!
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Blameless, unique, he lived and spake,
So wise above his lowlier kind
That all the endowments of his mind
Seemed radiant as from godhood's wake.
He sought to quell the nameless ache
That pierced humanity's heart; he sought
Ease for its pagan thirst to find
At bounteous conduits of chaste thought!
So wise above his lowlier kind
That all the endowments of his mind
Seemed radiant as from godhood's wake.
He sought to quell the nameless ache
That pierced humanity's heart; he sought
Ease for its pagan thirst to find
At bounteous conduits of chaste thought!
He loved us in the o'erbrooding way
That heaven bends over sea and land;
The meek benignance of his hand
With sweet strange tyrannies could sway;
He bade us break the stubborn clay
Whose bonds detain the ascendant soul
From those pure summits which command
The glory and calm of self-control.
That heaven bends over sea and land;
The meek benignance of his hand
With sweet strange tyrannies could sway;
He bade us break the stubborn clay
Whose bonds detain the ascendant soul
From those pure summits which command
The glory and calm of self-control.
No prize beyond death his promise gave,
No visible paradise of sense;
He only implied that recompense
Which is to right, our side the grave,
As to the shaft the architrave,—
That guerdon of sublime device,
The realization high, intense,
Of individual sacrifice!
No visible paradise of sense;
He only implied that recompense
Which is to right, our side the grave,
As to the shaft the architrave,—
That guerdon of sublime device,
The realization high, intense,
Of individual sacrifice!
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His teaching's rich remedial store
Among unlettered listeners fell
Not in cold idiom, as was well,
But soft pictorial metaphor;
Till they who marked its precious lore
Thus blossom in parable or trope,
Too credulously made it tell
Illusory messages of hope!
Among unlettered listeners fell
Not in cold idiom, as was well,
But soft pictorial metaphor;
Till they who marked its precious lore
Thus blossom in parable or trope,
Too credulously made it tell
Illusory messages of hope!
What vital truths his counsel said
Were called by supernatural names,
Their grand utilitarian aims
Misvalued, misinterpreted.
His followers traced about his head
The angelic nimbus, meekly worn,—
While they contemptuous of such claims,
Mocked him with fiery heathen scorn!
Were called by supernatural names,
Their grand utilitarian aims
Misvalued, misinterpreted.
His followers traced about his head
The angelic nimbus, meekly worn,—
While they contemptuous of such claims,
Mocked him with fiery heathen scorn!
Fond ignorance, on his acts intent,
Clad them in miracle's weird guise
And linked them to the smart surprise
That dexterous juggleries invent;
Or yet fierce brains their efforts bent
To assert him kinned with evil fates. ...
And so he moved before men's eyes,
Half-cheered with loves, half-lashed with hates!
Clad them in miracle's weird guise
And linked them to the smart surprise
That dexterous juggleries invent;
Or yet fierce brains their efforts bent
To assert him kinned with evil fates. ...
And so he moved before men's eyes,
Half-cheered with loves, half-lashed with hates!
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Girt thick by crime, yet free from flaw,
Fearless he moved through field and mart,
Philanthropy's divinest part
Substantiate in his life's pure law,
And showering on the world he saw
Those peerless ethics, wide as air,
Yet narrow as any hearer's heart
For entrance and continuance there.
Fearless he moved through field and mart,
Philanthropy's divinest part
Substantiate in his life's pure law,
And showering on the world he saw
Those peerless ethics, wide as air,
Yet narrow as any hearer's heart
For entrance and continuance there.
Then came the hour when scathed with jeers
He fell before that last loud sin
Whose echoing infamy has been
Vibrant through eighteen hundred years.
He lived pre-eminent above peers,
He died with mercy in his last breath,—
Yet only as gratitude could win
Gethsemane, Calvary and death!
He fell before that last loud sin
Whose echoing infamy has been
Vibrant through eighteen hundred years.
He lived pre-eminent above peers,
He died with mercy in his last breath,—
Yet only as gratitude could win
Gethsemane, Calvary and death!
And since the Syrian sun looked down
On that supreme historic woe,—
The desecrated brow below
Its bloody and ignominious crown,
The stark nailed limbs, the ribald town,
The insulting spear, too base to slay,—
How many a creed has caught its glow
From that one dire and lurid day!
On that supreme historic woe,—
The desecrated brow below
Its bloody and ignominious crown,
The stark nailed limbs, the ribald town,
The insulting spear, too base to slay,—
How many a creed has caught its glow
From that one dire and lurid day!
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What wild polemic heat has raged!
How gibbet, stake and rack would fright
Pale shuddering martyrs, morn and night!
And how, through centuries unassuaged,
Calamitous battle has been waged
By hot ecclesiastic leagues,
Till history's wan muse tires to write
Of massacres, bigotries, intrigues!
How gibbet, stake and rack would fright
Pale shuddering martyrs, morn and night!
And how, through centuries unassuaged,
Calamitous battle has been waged
By hot ecclesiastic leagues,
Till history's wan muse tires to write
Of massacres, bigotries, intrigues!
And lo! this fury of sword and pen
Was flung toward him whose love could span
Humanity, and who pleaded man
For peace on earth, good will to men!
The reach of whose intuitive ken,
Strong with desires to save and bless,
Outsoared all philosophic plan
In monumental kindliness!
Was flung toward him whose love could span
Humanity, and who pleaded man
For peace on earth, good will to men!
The reach of whose intuitive ken,
Strong with desires to save and bless,
Outsoared all philosophic plan
In monumental kindliness!
But now at last through lovelier ways
His bright identity may burn
For the unfanatic few that turn
To watch it with impartial gaze.
Stript bare from fable's cheapening praise,
A memory and a name unpriced,
At last with reverence we discern
The white humanitarian Christ!
His bright identity may burn
For the unfanatic few that turn
To watch it with impartial gaze.
Stript bare from fable's cheapening praise,
A memory and a name unpriced,
At last with reverence we discern
The white humanitarian Christ!
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