 | The Choir and The Oratory |  |
I.
“Marvel not:—ye must be born again.”—John iii. 7.
The human plant has life before its birth
To conscious being. Then, a sentient flower,
Slowly the germ puts forth each vital power.
Not yet the man is formed, till Pain and Mirth
Have waked the soul to all the things of earth,
And Mind of Sense is born. Youth's fervid hour
Is spent, ere Man attains the ample dower
Of Reason. But ah! what is reason worth,
To him who lives in sin and dies in gloom?
Another birth the soul must undergo,
Its noblest style of being to assume;—
Derived from One 'tis endless life to know,
An immortality begun below,
A life Divine, which oversteps the tomb.
| The Choir and The Oratory | |