 | Miami Woods : a golden wedding and other poems |  |
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II.
The Temple.
I.
'T was a beautiful, bright, bland Autumn Day.A Sabbath hush on my spirit lay.
I had heard the Sermon, and bow'd in prayer,
And laid my heart to its Maker bare.
I had eaten the fat of the fruitful land,
And given God thanks for His liberal hand.
I had turn'd from Pilate, and sicken'd, to Christ,
And wept o'er the Life he sacrificed.
I had lookt on the proud, on the meek, on the lowly,
And thought of the Sabbath, “to keep it holy.”
I had walkt with the Savior in Galilee
And felt doubt, and confusion, and darkness flee.
II.
Then I enter'd that Temple, not made with hands,That out in the broad blue firmament stands.
By the “Rock of Ages,” in its midst
I stood; and I said in my Soul: “Thou didst,
Oh God! this temple build for Man:
And in it he worshipt ere yet began
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And the boastful structures hewn of logs
And of granite and marble; and long ere yet
The mosque arose, and the minaret.
—If then and thus Thou didst let him bow,
And worship, wilt Thou forbid him now?”
III.
Whilst the waving woods, and the whispering breeze,Fill'd the arching groves with their symphonies,
I rose; and I felt that the Spirit of God
Fill'd the Temple He founded, high and broad;
And I said in my soul, as I gazed up above,
'Tis a Spirit of liberty, light, and love,
And of mercy, and goodness, and beauty and truth.”
And the Faith of my Age to the Hope of my Youth
Cried aloud: “Thou hast said it! 'tis as thou hast said!”
And again to that Spirit I bow'd down my head,
And I worshipt. “Oh God! if this worship be not
What Thou willest,” I cried, “set thy sign on this spot!”
IV.
And I worshipt, and waited. I got not a sign;But the Spirit of Peace rested on me—was mine—
And I worshipt, and waited. No Horeb—no bush,
Burning voiceful—no Sinai, with thunders. The hush,
Though, that came over nature, around and above,
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And I worshipt, and waited. Then came unto me,
In the depths of my spirit, with tones like the sea,
This only: “The Temple that arches abroad,
Over all, is the House of the Living God!”
And then this, as to Christ all the Centuries ran,
And this only: “The Sabbath was made for Man!”
V.
And I cried out: “Oh man! to the house of prayerMade with hands, go up—for thy God is there;
And, in the days of thy beautiful youth,
Bow down, and worship in spirit and truth;
In the mightier years of thy ripening age,
There still against Sin in the battle engage:
But say not of him who goes out and stands
In that grand old Temple not made with hands,
And hungers and thirsts, and worships and waits,
And for righteousness longs and supplicates,
That he errs: for Christ and his Cross are there,
And God's Angels come to him unaware.”
VI.
Then I thought of Jacob, by Isaac sentAfar into Haran, and then, as he went,
Of the ladder at Bethel, whereon in the night
Moved the Angels of God, in their vestments of light;
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That at Penuel met Jacob, and wrestled long;
And then of the Voice that so often spoke
To Moses, who broke the Egyptian yoke;
Of the Ravens that fed, in his sore distress,
Elijah prone in the Wilderness;
And the hungry hosts, that on manna fed,
And by unseen hands were comforted.
VII.
And I thought of the Dove that came to Christ,When he rose from the water, by John baptized;
Of the Mountain of Light, and the Shining Cloud,
And the Voice that out of it spoke aloud;
Of the Light that arrested and startled Paul
On his way to Damascus down; and the call
That then shook his soul; and the thick, dull night,
That lay on his eyes when withdrew that Light;
Of the Tones that at Corinth bade him “Cease
Not thou, nor fear, nor yet hold thy peace;”
And of all sights and sounds, of the earth and air,
Which proclaim that—“God is Everywhere!”
| Miami Woods : a golden wedding and other poems | |