Songs Controversial By Silent Long [i.e. T. T. Lynch] |
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 | Songs Controversial |  |
I. EYE-SALVE.
Did you but know your Saviour,
You'd surely see with other eyes,
And change your whole behaviour:
He talked of grass, and wind, and rain,
And fig-trees, and fair weather,
And made it His delight to bring
Heaven and the earth together.
The sparrow and the raven;
And words so natural, yet so wise,
Were on men's hearts engraven:
And yeast, and bread, and flax, and cloth,
And eggs, and fish, and candles;
See! how the whole familiar world
He most divinely handles.
“Deceiver,” and a “Devil;”
I'm sorry that you've learnt their plan,
And fallen to their level:
They trod His pearls beneath their feet,
The doctors were the swine:
But though their folly you repeat,
His wisdom shall be mine.
II. THE POET WARNED.
A student's proper post,
Like an idolator to stare
Upon the heavenly host?
To sound and theologic men
The stars are paltry spangles,
Trinkets with which, at guilty night,
The vain world idly dangles.
Birds' song is empty twitter;
You'll nothing learn but balderdash,
In fields where daisies glitter:
Go back into your study, go,
Your maudlin fancies, curb 'em;
Go, ponder o'er your Hebrew verb,
“Sat sapienti verbum.”
Be wiser than to list,
Or in a very little time,
You may turn Pantheist;
The wind-flowers then will bear away
Your spirit far from church,
And all alone, with Love Divine,
Will leave you in the lurch.
III. THE PHARISEE CHANGED.
How good a life he led;
The Publican shrunk back in shame,
And smote his breast instead:
But when the Lord, in tender love,
The penitent commended,
The hypocrite, with heart unchanged,
Straightway his prayer amended.
Is by the Lord thought best;
So next when he to worship went,
As Publican he drest,
And smote upon his hollow heart,
And bowed him down and groaned,
And, proud of his humility,
His unfelt sins he owned.
Came, too, with lifted head,
And joyfully gave thanks to God
For the new life he led:
The Lord again his offering took,
Still spurned the Pharisee's,
For sometimes tears and sometimes thanks,
But only Truth can please.
IV. INK AND DRINK.
The Church, she was a mother,
Who opened first one fount of life,
And opened then another:
But now we all must live on ink,
The milky streams are dry;
Her bosom it was warm and soft,
Our pens are hard and sly.
Unto the Press Religious;
Its blacking is so black that we
Can only cry—“Prodigious!”
By slang and slander, half and half,
A polish fine is given,
To black the seven-league boots in which
Editors stride to—Heaven!
So grace is mostly gall;
Now, like the drunkard for his glass,
Saints for their “bitters” call:
Without their Hatred, as strong drink,
These strong men can't exist,
Love is but pap for little babe
And sentimentalist.
V. THE CRAWLING CRITIC.
That has no business there,
With stealthy, irritating tread
Should crawl from hair to hair;
Of all the secrets of the brain
What could that creature know,
How learn the ecstacy and pain,
That have their home below?
And maiden virtue teach;
Crawl, critic, over Samson's locks,
His secret strength to reach:
Crawl on the curly-pated child,
And learn his innocence;
Crawl on the grey-beard, and find out
Experience and good sense.
That ever poet sang,
You're still outside, you'll never know
One secret joy or pang:
Intruding, you may vex the skin
With superficial pain;
Profoundly far from you still lies
The wise and feeling brain.
VI. THE EDITOR MOUNTED.
And shall it come to pass
That none will urge another claim,
And praise the British Ass?
How long his ears, how loud his bray,
Profoundly stupid he,
And ever towards the proper way,
His tail points faithfully.
And see around him bristle,
In crops luxuriant and profuse,
The old five-pointed thistle,
And then you will convert him to
An ass of noblest mettle;
And problems no man's head can solve,
His heels will swiftly settle.
Howe'er you poke and thwack;
But let the British Editor
But mount upon his back;
His ears he lifts, his heels he flings,
And headlong flies away,
Smashing through truth and decency
With a triumphant bray.
VII. A NEW PLAN.
Whoe'er casts in his lot,
Presuming for the Church to sing,
We'll let him know what's what:
Of better hymns than we deserve
We've quite enough provided;
And no man now shall innovate,
On that we're most decided.
Wise as the cruel snake;
Each creature's evil leave behind,
It's excellency take:
But that won't do for times like these,
Heretical and loose;
We need the venom of the worm,
The folly of the goose.
And hoot, and hiss, and bellow;
Till we have purified the Church
Of every quiet fellow:
If any one complain and frown,
Then this is our apology,
We must by all means bluster down
The Negative Theology.
VIII. A NEGATIVE AFFAIR.
I know that it is there,
Melt it, and then I soon suspect
A negative affair:
Where is the sugar, Sir? I say,
Let me both touch and see;
Sweetness instead of sugar, Sir,
You'll not palm off on me.
When dropt in water clear,
That they may make the water sweet,
Themselves must disappear;
For common sense, Sir, such as mine,
The lumps themselves must see;
Sweetness instead of sugar, Sir,
You'll not palm off on me.
Sound doctrine you should state
As clearly as a dead man's name
Is on his coffin plate:
Religion, Sir, is only fudge,
Let's have theology;
Sweetness instead of sugar, Sir,
You'll not palm off on me.
IX. EGG-SHELL.
Cannot an egg be laid;
The shell should therefore ever be
Of prime importance made;
And if you breakfast on the egg,
And cast aside the shell,
A candid man will hardly say
That such a course is well.
A form of words to guard it?
If once, then, you have got the form,
Beware how you discard it:
To get at truth, if ever forms
Be tampered with and broke,
It is as if you cracked the shell
That you might eat the yolk.
In all this writer's hymns;
But like the yolk of egg in wine,
In verse his doctrine swims:
He gives us egg without the shell;
When next he writes, we beg
He'll give us, what we'd much prefer,
The shell without the egg.
X. DEAD THINGS BEST.
Should boggling poets stick?
Each text was given as a rope
To hang a heretic:
The Scripture is for ever fixt
Like corpse upon a table,
How rightly to dissect the Word
Would doctors else be able?
Far safer is the “letter;”
A living lion might devour,
A dead one is much better:
Come, “cut him up” and peep—but oh!
Suppose you were detected?
If suddenly from sleep he springs,
Perhaps you'll be dissected.
Howe'er we warn and chide him,
Why want a living steed although
Such trouble 'tis to ride him:
Why should we ride till we are sore,
On miry ways and sandy,
A rocking-horse on parlour floor
Is far more clean and handy?
XI. COURTS CONFIDENTIAL.
Of the great public eye,
Can never be the proper place
A heretic to try:
When holy men in conclave meet,
There's one thing most essential;
They must upon a footing treat,
Entirely confidential.
With keen indignant glances
That through ecclesiastic nerves
Would run like fiery lances:
The Churchman to the Public says,
Where, Sir, is your credential?
Pray don't intrude in an affair
Entirely confidential.
But private, Sir, the trial;
Or heretics might every charge
Rebut with firm denial;
Convict the orthodox of sin
By arguments potential:—
The court must be for us to win,
Entirely confidential.
XII. ORTHODOXY.
Much wiser wish to be;
But perfect wisdom I disclaim
With all humility.
And are you orthodox? Oh, yes,
None more so can be found,
I've some regard to character,
And hate a man unsound.
And some one else awaking,
And, seeing that the sun is up,
Gives you a friendly shaking;
Though you may call him heretic,
He proves himself the wiser,
For evermore Truth's best success
Comes through the earliest riser.
In thought, and act, and word,
Of any man quite orthodox
Whoever yet has heard?
All such pretences Wisdom mocks
As gravely she replies,
There's only One that's orthodox,
He who alone is wise.
XIII. COBWEB.
New hearts alone can keep;
Its fruits, a new earth and new heaven
Will with a new song reap:
And when this new command is kept,
With new eyes shall we see
New things of every kind, except
A New Theology?
On Jesus Christ the Door
Have spun their cobwebs fine until
They've darkly closed him o'er:
They catch the souls that come to Him,
They seize them for a prey;
Oh blessed hour, Oh happy man,
That sweeps their webs away.
May many men repel,
And why should Heaven's door look as dark
As if it led to Hell?
Perhaps this New Theology
Has come to do no more
Than sweep the cobwebs all away
From Jesus Christ the Door.
XIV. VOICES VICTORIOUS.
But not that voices killed Him;
Voices of men whose rage and pride
Abhorred the love that filled Him:
I find no fault, the Roman said,
Yet have I not two choices;
'Twere folly to withstand a crowd,
All urgent with loud voices.
His words were wont to stab us;
He's guilty of worse robbery
Than ever was Barabbas:
He smote our rabbis through the shield
Of their phylacteries;
He stole away the people's hearts,
We hate him, and he dies.
Let prudent men reflect;
Some victim must the tumult quell,
Or we shall all be wreckt:
Let Churches, then, be worldly wise,
And, anxious for a calm,
Be ready Christ to sacrifice,
To save themselves from harm.
XV. THE WAY AND THE END.
Thou art the only Way;
And in our suffering Master's track,
Through many a weary day
I've journeyed on and oft have said,
Enough, Lord, let me die;
But quickly Thou hast answered me,
Fear not, my help is nigh.
Wilt Thou be but a Way?
Frail, sinful men my fathers were,
Not better I than they:
Oh take me to Thyself, I said,
Enough, Lord, let me die;
But Thou again hast answered me,
Fear not, my help is nigh.
Refuse Thee as the Way?
Thou, too, wast watched by evil eyes,
Men sought Thee for their prey:
I'm weary of the strife, I said,
Enough, Lord, let me die;
But Thou once more hast answered me,
Fear not, my help is nigh.
The term “faith,” which occurs, as has been said, twenty-two times in the “Rivulet,” is in several hymns used more than once. It is found in fifteen hymns, which hereby protest once more against wrong. Crying, “Wrong charged and right pleaded,” they shall now confront Dr. Campbell one by one. As, however, he has not honestly read the book, I shall not tell him which hymns they are, but leave him to find out, if he likes.
No. 1 affirms that they who enlist in the Lord's service must do so in faith, calm mid tumult, confident in hope.
No. 2 teaches us that when faith wrestles hardest it triumphs most, recognising Divine love amid the darkest troubles.
No. 3 affirms that “faith” in the Lord Jesus Christ will ease us from fear.
In No. 4, the “term” occurs twice, and it is taught that when we are at our wit's end there may be the beginning of new faith, and that skill, aided by such faith, will avail greatly.
No. 5 tells us that holy men “stood by faith,” that by faith first vanquishing their fears, they could then meet their foes, and that faith in adversities is still conqueror, because it denies that things are as they seem. In this one hymn the term occurs three times.
No. 6 teaches us that till men have a common faith in God, they will not have a common enjoyment of His bounties.
No. 7 contains the “term” four times. It compares faith to a staff and a sword, sets forth Christ our captain and our guide as the object of our trust, and entreats for the Spirit of Christ that we may lean on our faith as a staff, and wield it against falsehood as a sword.
No. 8 speaks of the house of the wise man as the house of obedient faith.
No. 9 teaches that though craft and force unite to wrong us, yet if we read the Saviour's story with faith, we shall not doubt the issue.
No. 10 says that when deceiving sin and worldly fears defy the faith that rules inwardly, we cry to God to save us from estranging error, our chief fear being lest we should be seduced from Him.
No. 11 tells us that though the world is new every hour, faith and love are old as well as new, and that we must be wise in what is old if we would win new glory, and that men of faith in the old time were mighty because their soul was open to receive God. In this hymn the “term” occurs twice.
No. 12 prays that through patience faith may be confirmed and love proved.
No. 13 says that only the heart that has faith can, like a strong bird, face the gale, ascending, and singing as it rises.
No. 14 contains a cry to God for vigour to press onward in faith upon Him whose perfection pleads for ours, and through whose resurrection we rise.
No. 15 expresses the wonder the soul sometimes feels at former faith, and utters a prayer against waywardness, and that, faithful to the inward light, it may become calm always.
In this hymn faithful as well as faith occurs. And it occurs again. One of Dr. Campbell's three instances of the term faith is actually the term believes. Why, if the term believes and other relative terms may be taken, the case against the Doctor may be made much stronger! He has sinned against Mr. Lynch. A saint would repent with shame and grief. Will Dr. Campbell?
| Songs Controversial | |