 | A creed, etcetera |  |
1
A CREED.
Known but to few, as living much apart,
He fed on Thoughts and hid them in his heart,
Followed consistently the lights he had
(If mutinous where mere convention bade)
And, though a racer heavily-weighted, still
Kept pace with circumstance by strength of will:
To what then had he brought his faith, his creed,
To heresies, or truths in word and deed?
How stood his churchmanship,—high, broad, or low?
Hear him, and judge,—if any care to know.
He fed on Thoughts and hid them in his heart,
Followed consistently the lights he had
(If mutinous where mere convention bade)
And, though a racer heavily-weighted, still
Kept pace with circumstance by strength of will:
To what then had he brought his faith, his creed,
To heresies, or truths in word and deed?
How stood his churchmanship,—high, broad, or low?
Hear him, and judge,—if any care to know.
The Trinity, Redemption from the fall
By God-in-man, (and He is Lord of all,)
The Bible evermore before its age
From inspiration gilding every page,
Pure morals and good works and trust in Heaven,
And hourly prayer and praise for mercies given,
These, with the like old doctrines, did he deem
The need-bes of religion and its scheme:
A Trinity, because the Great Good One,
Unselfish, never willed to live Alone,
But chose from all eternity to be
Love Light and Life, united One in Three;
Redemption from a fall,—for both were sure
Where man was made for trial not quite pure,
And The Emmanuel would restore His work
From less than best that in its birth must lurk;
A written revelation justly given
From age to age by prophets taught of Heaven;
And holy life in this probation scene
Where God Himself a tempted man hath been.
By God-in-man, (and He is Lord of all,)
The Bible evermore before its age
From inspiration gilding every page,
2
And hourly prayer and praise for mercies given,
These, with the like old doctrines, did he deem
The need-bes of religion and its scheme:
A Trinity, because the Great Good One,
Unselfish, never willed to live Alone,
But chose from all eternity to be
Love Light and Life, united One in Three;
Redemption from a fall,—for both were sure
Where man was made for trial not quite pure,
And The Emmanuel would restore His work
From less than best that in its birth must lurk;
A written revelation justly given
From age to age by prophets taught of Heaven;
And holy life in this probation scene
Where God Himself a tempted man hath been.
These stood his principles, and practice too,
All to believe for faith, for works to do;
The one thing needful, due obedience done
To reason and religion joined in one:
But, where some teachers would dispute the right
Of private judgment as a living light
Quenched in the dogmas of a self-styled Church,
Fathers and all he left them in the lurch;
Traditions, ceremonies, developements
(Which fallible credulity invents,)
These he abjured; and still could reverence least
The craft, sometimes the person, of the priest;
That cruel craft which in its canting trade
'Twixt heaven and hell its livelihood hath made,—
That sacerdotal actor in a stole
With treacherous claims to cure the cheated soul,
Who, being tyrannous though seeming kind,
Has always striven to stop the march of mind
In every cult of every age and clime,
Pagan or Christian, on the course of time!
Not but that wisdom and religion too
Full often prove the man both good and true,
A man of charity, and works with faith,
Who lives to God in doing as he saith;
To such an one, all honour and all love
Be given, as to an angel from above;
But where presumption, pride and craft appear,
Aroint thee, priest! in spite of holy gear.
All to believe for faith, for works to do;
The one thing needful, due obedience done
To reason and religion joined in one:
But, where some teachers would dispute the right
Of private judgment as a living light
3
Fathers and all he left them in the lurch;
Traditions, ceremonies, developements
(Which fallible credulity invents,)
These he abjured; and still could reverence least
The craft, sometimes the person, of the priest;
That cruel craft which in its canting trade
'Twixt heaven and hell its livelihood hath made,—
That sacerdotal actor in a stole
With treacherous claims to cure the cheated soul,
Who, being tyrannous though seeming kind,
Has always striven to stop the march of mind
In every cult of every age and clime,
Pagan or Christian, on the course of time!
Not but that wisdom and religion too
Full often prove the man both good and true,
A man of charity, and works with faith,
Who lives to God in doing as he saith;
To such an one, all honour and all love
Be given, as to an angel from above;
But where presumption, pride and craft appear,
Aroint thee, priest! in spite of holy gear.
4
For no man's ipse-dixit did he care
Unless he heard the voice of reason there,
And leant on no authority in aid
Of conscience, standing sole and undismay'd;
His independence might at times offend,
For he confessed to foe as well as friend,
And (with a tolerant heart for others still)
True to himself fought on through good or ill,
So that both bigot-zeal and Gallio-scorn
Reviled his honesty, as if strife-born:
He—why not I?—start, honesty! straight out,
And creep not crabwise sideling round about,—
I never cared to follow, or be led,
Nor placed my fellow-sinner in God's stead,—
I ever dared to think and act alone,
And this my Creed with small compunction own.
Unless he heard the voice of reason there,
And leant on no authority in aid
Of conscience, standing sole and undismay'd;
His independence might at times offend,
For he confessed to foe as well as friend,
And (with a tolerant heart for others still)
True to himself fought on through good or ill,
So that both bigot-zeal and Gallio-scorn
Reviled his honesty, as if strife-born:
He—why not I?—start, honesty! straight out,
And creep not crabwise sideling round about,—
I never cared to follow, or be led,
Nor placed my fellow-sinner in God's stead,—
I ever dared to think and act alone,
And this my Creed with small compunction own.
The Church is of all churches,—and of none,—
Christ's several jewels gathered one by one
Of every tribe and country kith and kind,
The honest and good heart, the pure in mind;
‘One in a city,’ searching it around,
‘Two of a family,’ be sometimes found,
But never batches of the mere baptized,—
All were not Israelites, though circumcised,
And no certificate of man's device
Can make a child ‘regenerate’ in a trice,
Though sponsors water words and priest declare
Faith works repentance promised then and there!
Those who do good (whatever we may call
The various tenets held by some or all)
And those who turn from evil, once beguiled
But after to their Father reconciled,
These are elect, the true in heart and mind,
God's Church, to serve Him and to help mankind.
As the man lives, in such or such a sphere,
His bliss is bred, or woe, both there and here;
For works do follow us, for good or ill,
And heaven or hell are our own making still,
Welcomed Elsewhere by friends our mammon bought,
Or trapp'd there in the gins our passions wrought.
These lives we deem so transient and so vain
In thought and word and deed shall live again,
And conscience evermore be glad or sad
As memory smiles or weeps o'er good or bad;
Yea, where repentance and forgiveness met,
With humble gratitude those cheeks are wet,
Yea, when remembrance notes unsoilzied sin
Remorse must rise once more, and writhe within:
True, Christ hath paid our debt,—but conscience still
Must ache and shrink at recollected ill,
And a black past be seamed with many a scar,
Though Mercy give a man the Morning Star.
Christ's several jewels gathered one by one
Of every tribe and country kith and kind,
The honest and good heart, the pure in mind;
‘One in a city,’ searching it around,
‘Two of a family,’ be sometimes found,
5
All were not Israelites, though circumcised,
And no certificate of man's device
Can make a child ‘regenerate’ in a trice,
Though sponsors water words and priest declare
Faith works repentance promised then and there!
Those who do good (whatever we may call
The various tenets held by some or all)
And those who turn from evil, once beguiled
But after to their Father reconciled,
These are elect, the true in heart and mind,
God's Church, to serve Him and to help mankind.
As the man lives, in such or such a sphere,
His bliss is bred, or woe, both there and here;
For works do follow us, for good or ill,
And heaven or hell are our own making still,
Welcomed Elsewhere by friends our mammon bought,
Or trapp'd there in the gins our passions wrought.
These lives we deem so transient and so vain
In thought and word and deed shall live again,
And conscience evermore be glad or sad
As memory smiles or weeps o'er good or bad;
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With humble gratitude those cheeks are wet,
Yea, when remembrance notes unsoilzied sin
Remorse must rise once more, and writhe within:
True, Christ hath paid our debt,—but conscience still
Must ache and shrink at recollected ill,
And a black past be seamed with many a scar,
Though Mercy give a man the Morning Star.
I doubt not that the buds, here seen to burst,
Grow to their gradual fruiting from the first;
That be our earthly studies what you will,
Pure to the pure, we may pursue them still,
Serving our God with intellectual praise
And searching out His attributes all ways.
For immortality in science lurks,
Revealing the Creator in His works,
And Art and Nature Providence and Grace
Are but the forms and mirrors of His face:
Yea, Grammar Number Taste and even Wit
Hath each its endless errand, true and fit;
The notes of music, and the lines of form,
The laws that regulate light tide and storm,
Antiquity, throughout the eternal past,
History, in all those worlds so far and vast,
Travel, Adventure, every earthsown seed
Cleansed of its evil, from its frailties freed,
Shall grow to glad fruition and arise
A calling and a glory in the skies!
O all ye works,—as those Three Children sung,
Magnify Him for ever, heart and tongue,
O all ye works, with living voice proclaim
The boundless honours of your Maker's name;
Each element eternally be there
The marvels of His wisdom to declare,
Each man and beast and bird and fish and flower
To glorify His Universal Power!
Grow to their gradual fruiting from the first;
That be our earthly studies what you will,
Pure to the pure, we may pursue them still,
Serving our God with intellectual praise
And searching out His attributes all ways.
For immortality in science lurks,
Revealing the Creator in His works,
And Art and Nature Providence and Grace
Are but the forms and mirrors of His face:
Yea, Grammar Number Taste and even Wit
Hath each its endless errand, true and fit;
The notes of music, and the lines of form,
The laws that regulate light tide and storm,
7
History, in all those worlds so far and vast,
Travel, Adventure, every earthsown seed
Cleansed of its evil, from its frailties freed,
Shall grow to glad fruition and arise
A calling and a glory in the skies!
O all ye works,—as those Three Children sung,
Magnify Him for ever, heart and tongue,
O all ye works, with living voice proclaim
The boundless honours of your Maker's name;
Each element eternally be there
The marvels of His wisdom to declare,
Each man and beast and bird and fish and flower
To glorify His Universal Power!
I cannot choose continually to sing
In Sabbath-worship with a folded wing,
Throned on a cloud, and resting evermore
In Buddhist sloth, all active duties o'er;
No! give my spirit work in many ways
And glorious errands of laborious praise,
Whilst happily from world to world I soar
And our Great King more worthily adore
With all my faculties in all those orbs
Where love to Him those faculties absorbs
And the great goals of sciences I win
Through some poor elements we here begin,—
Seeing our temporal beginnings tend
To far eternity, and find no end!
In Sabbath-worship with a folded wing,
Throned on a cloud, and resting evermore
In Buddhist sloth, all active duties o'er;
No! give my spirit work in many ways
And glorious errands of laborious praise,
Whilst happily from world to world I soar
And our Great King more worthily adore
8
Where love to Him those faculties absorbs
And the great goals of sciences I win
Through some poor elements we here begin,—
Seeing our temporal beginnings tend
To far eternity, and find no end!
My ministers of grace, by tongue or pen,
Need not for me to be ordained of men;
Frocked—or unfrocked,—ye souls who serve the right
Be still my priests, as children of the light,
And, whether apostolical or not,
Man, woman, child, or volume,—bless my lot!
I want no ritual for my Sabbath-feast,
I ask no temple, and I need no priest;
Wise men there are in consecrated guise
Whose kindly counsel none would dare despise,
If good and true such “sacred” persons be
Welcome by brotherhood be such to me;
But, for mere office in its cope and stole
I find therein small solace to my soul,
Cautious of men made holy by their dress,
And little bettered though a bishop bless.
But I can worship in the field or wood,
Or with the hymning waves at ebb or flood,
Or in the city streets with sorrow fraught
Wrapt in the prayerful solitude of thought;
And chiefest, do these stars my soul upraise
By their sublimities to loftier praise,
Contemplating their vast and glorious spheres
Guided in order through eternal years,
And heedful far beyond our little span
How deep, how high, how broad the mind of man.
Need not for me to be ordained of men;
Frocked—or unfrocked,—ye souls who serve the right
Be still my priests, as children of the light,
And, whether apostolical or not,
Man, woman, child, or volume,—bless my lot!
I want no ritual for my Sabbath-feast,
I ask no temple, and I need no priest;
Wise men there are in consecrated guise
Whose kindly counsel none would dare despise,
If good and true such “sacred” persons be
Welcome by brotherhood be such to me;
But, for mere office in its cope and stole
I find therein small solace to my soul,
Cautious of men made holy by their dress,
And little bettered though a bishop bless.
9
Or with the hymning waves at ebb or flood,
Or in the city streets with sorrow fraught
Wrapt in the prayerful solitude of thought;
And chiefest, do these stars my soul upraise
By their sublimities to loftier praise,
Contemplating their vast and glorious spheres
Guided in order through eternal years,
And heedful far beyond our little span
How deep, how high, how broad the mind of man.
For me no sect may save, nor can destroy,
No scheme of man's ensure me woe or joy,
No shibboleth of words will ban or bless,
No broad phylacteries help more or less.
Primal and pure let my religion be,
And all corrupt conclusions far from me;
I still recur, with Scripture for my right,
To those first hours of apostolic light
When blessed Christ ordained that wine and bread
Should prove His spirit present in His stead;
As stated simply in the dear old Book
Wherein alone for church and faith I look,
Unheeding what the Fathers said or thought
Unless, with Paul, they taught as Jesus taught.
No scheme of man's ensure me woe or joy,
No shibboleth of words will ban or bless,
No broad phylacteries help more or less.
Primal and pure let my religion be,
And all corrupt conclusions far from me;
I still recur, with Scripture for my right,
To those first hours of apostolic light
When blessed Christ ordained that wine and bread
Should prove His spirit present in His stead;
As stated simply in the dear old Book
Wherein alone for church and faith I look,
10
Unless, with Paul, they taught as Jesus taught.
I worship with the universe of God,
With angel, man, and brute, and plant, and clod,
For in all beings, wheresoe'er we search,
Behold! in their degrees the living Church.
Planets, or atoms, as His wisdom plann'd,
Saints, ay or reptiles, creatures of His hand
In Him are saved; both man and all his world
From the deep dark where matter sank downhurl'd,
Purified from creation's needful dross
By God's self-sacrifice upon the cross;
And not here only, in man's earthly bound,
But through those million worlds of light around,
Wherever mind and matter, joined as one,
By flesh and spirit claim to be a son,
Wherever the Creator willed to make
Aught less than perfect, for progression's sake,
Yet willed perfection infinitely far
With endless bettering to all things that are:
For as the man goes on to perfect man
So with all else in Nature's finished plan,—
Beast bird and fish, the tree the fern the flower,
Each shall be perfected to that far hour
When Christ surrenders His millenial throne
And God is all-in-all,—thus not alone!
With angel, man, and brute, and plant, and clod,
For in all beings, wheresoe'er we search,
Behold! in their degrees the living Church.
Planets, or atoms, as His wisdom plann'd,
Saints, ay or reptiles, creatures of His hand
In Him are saved; both man and all his world
From the deep dark where matter sank downhurl'd,
Purified from creation's needful dross
By God's self-sacrifice upon the cross;
And not here only, in man's earthly bound,
But through those million worlds of light around,
Wherever mind and matter, joined as one,
By flesh and spirit claim to be a son,
Wherever the Creator willed to make
Aught less than perfect, for progression's sake,
Yet willed perfection infinitely far
With endless bettering to all things that are:
For as the man goes on to perfect man
So with all else in Nature's finished plan,—
11
Each shall be perfected to that far hour
When Christ surrenders His millenial throne
And God is all-in-all,—thus not alone!
Far from me be that stale conceited whim
Man is God's everything, and all for him,
Making our globe head-centre of the spheres
As men were taught in Ptolemaic years.
The goose upon the common thinks, they say,
That all creation serves him night and day;
And man's weak fancy on his little earth
Is that for him the universe had birth,—
For him, all greatest and all least of things,
The dancing gnats, and Saturn in his rings,—
For his sole good, in combination vast
The future and the present and the past,—
For man alone, his comfort and his aid,
—Not “for Himself”—the Maker all things made,—
For me forsooth,—O most presumptuous plan,
God to be deemed the minister of man!
Poor creeper! keep thy place, with meekness mute,
Lower than seraphs, higher than the brute,
And, once on thy small planet best and first,
By sin degraded to be last and worst,
Rescued through mercy, but unthankful still,
And saved, if saved at all, against thy will,—
Poor feeble slave of pride and self and sin
Look for humilities around, within,
Destroyed, but that redemption ransomed thee
And by creation made and meant to be
The midway loop in Nature's circling chain
From suns to dust, from dust to suns again!
Man is God's everything, and all for him,
Making our globe head-centre of the spheres
As men were taught in Ptolemaic years.
The goose upon the common thinks, they say,
That all creation serves him night and day;
And man's weak fancy on his little earth
Is that for him the universe had birth,—
For him, all greatest and all least of things,
The dancing gnats, and Saturn in his rings,—
For his sole good, in combination vast
The future and the present and the past,—
For man alone, his comfort and his aid,
—Not “for Himself”—the Maker all things made,—
For me forsooth,—O most presumptuous plan,
God to be deemed the minister of man!
Poor creeper! keep thy place, with meekness mute,
Lower than seraphs, higher than the brute,
12
By sin degraded to be last and worst,
Rescued through mercy, but unthankful still,
And saved, if saved at all, against thy will,—
Poor feeble slave of pride and self and sin
Look for humilities around, within,
Destroyed, but that redemption ransomed thee
And by creation made and meant to be
The midway loop in Nature's circling chain
From suns to dust, from dust to suns again!
My spirit yearns on everything that lives,
From me and to me love it gets and gives,
For kindness still breeds kindness as its child,
And savages are conquered by the mild.
Nothing is alien from my human heart,
But in each creature still I claim a part
As one small morsel of that mighty Whole
(Here chiefly body but hereafter soul)
Which lives to prove the Great Creator's praise
Various in many worlds and many ways.
Gladly some better life I recognize
For all that are, in earth air seas and skies,
To be revealed in that long-promised day
When Restitution clears the taint away
And for the thousand years of days of years
Shall make our solar planets Eden-spheres.
From me and to me love it gets and gives,
For kindness still breeds kindness as its child,
And savages are conquered by the mild.
Nothing is alien from my human heart,
But in each creature still I claim a part
As one small morsel of that mighty Whole
(Here chiefly body but hereafter soul)
Which lives to prove the Great Creator's praise
Various in many worlds and many ways.
Gladly some better life I recognize
For all that are, in earth air seas and skies,
13
When Restitution clears the taint away
And for the thousand years of days of years
Shall make our solar planets Eden-spheres.
O poor dumb creatures innocent of wrong
Yet so ill-used by us and suffering long,
Ye have my constant pity; and if men
Be sometimes pitied less than you,—what then?
The good is loveable, but not the bad;
Should sin or strife make any Christian glad?
Were the shrewd jockey honest as his horse
Merit so rare would admiration force,
And when clear selfishness no longer clogs
Keepers may be more noble than their dogs;
Affection, conscience, faithfulness are found
Less in the whipper-in than in his hound,
And the meek lamb may enter into life
Beside its butcher with his bloody knife;
That cruel costermonger and his drudge
Alike shall stand before their righteous Judge,
Those goaded oxen will erewhile be blest,
Even as yon poor ploughman, with God's Rest;
For compensation is the law of life
Wrong breeding right, and peace rewarding strife,
And in His hand the balances are true
If not for one world, yet all just for two,
Whilst every creature, to the meanest thing,
Owes less to justice than its fallen King.
That God breathed into man his life is true,
Yet to the brute He gave a spirit too:
And brutes are ours for use, to kill and eat,
But when was spirit eaten with the meat?
We kill, at God's command, and haply give
Escape to creatures that may happier live,
Till even wantonness and Sport may cease
To look like murder, rather like release,—
For yonder butterflies from grubs may teach
Some hope of higher to the worm or leech,
Some progress made from pleasure out of pain,
Some polish for each link of nature's chain.
Yet so ill-used by us and suffering long,
Ye have my constant pity; and if men
Be sometimes pitied less than you,—what then?
The good is loveable, but not the bad;
Should sin or strife make any Christian glad?
Were the shrewd jockey honest as his horse
Merit so rare would admiration force,
And when clear selfishness no longer clogs
Keepers may be more noble than their dogs;
Affection, conscience, faithfulness are found
Less in the whipper-in than in his hound,
And the meek lamb may enter into life
Beside its butcher with his bloody knife;
That cruel costermonger and his drudge
Alike shall stand before their righteous Judge,
Those goaded oxen will erewhile be blest,
Even as yon poor ploughman, with God's Rest;
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Wrong breeding right, and peace rewarding strife,
And in His hand the balances are true
If not for one world, yet all just for two,
Whilst every creature, to the meanest thing,
Owes less to justice than its fallen King.
That God breathed into man his life is true,
Yet to the brute He gave a spirit too:
And brutes are ours for use, to kill and eat,
But when was spirit eaten with the meat?
We kill, at God's command, and haply give
Escape to creatures that may happier live,
Till even wantonness and Sport may cease
To look like murder, rather like release,—
For yonder butterflies from grubs may teach
Some hope of higher to the worm or leech,
Some progress made from pleasure out of pain,
Some polish for each link of nature's chain.
I well believe no creature will be lost,
But live to recompense the care it cost,
No moss nor insect, even as no man,
No daintiest touch of nature's pictured plan:
I well believe that God the Maker gives
Progressive life to everything that lives,
Never repenting of that gift of grace
By stern annihilation in its place,
But meaning every darling of His care
To live and bless The Father everywhere.
All, all shall live once more; or (truer said)
Cease not to live, though called and counted dead;
Death is but change,—the spirit still survives,
And matter's atoms bear eternal lives,
And dissolution purifies all taints
As well in risen flowers as risen saints;
Christ hath redeemed creation; all in Him
Live, from the monads to the Cherubim;
He, in His coming reign, shall renovate
Earth to a paradise, man's primal state,
Shall make the trees rejoice, the seas to smile,
The very basilisk forget his guile,
Wrong change to right, the stench become perfume,
The sting be pleasantness, the blight be bloom,
Poison breed health, and life outwrestle death,
Renewed by God's all-vivifying breath,
With creature evil somewhile purged away,
And progress ripening to the perfect day.
But live to recompense the care it cost,
No moss nor insect, even as no man,
No daintiest touch of nature's pictured plan:
15
Progressive life to everything that lives,
Never repenting of that gift of grace
By stern annihilation in its place,
But meaning every darling of His care
To live and bless The Father everywhere.
All, all shall live once more; or (truer said)
Cease not to live, though called and counted dead;
Death is but change,—the spirit still survives,
And matter's atoms bear eternal lives,
And dissolution purifies all taints
As well in risen flowers as risen saints;
Christ hath redeemed creation; all in Him
Live, from the monads to the Cherubim;
He, in His coming reign, shall renovate
Earth to a paradise, man's primal state,
Shall make the trees rejoice, the seas to smile,
The very basilisk forget his guile,
Wrong change to right, the stench become perfume,
The sting be pleasantness, the blight be bloom,
Poison breed health, and life outwrestle death,
Renewed by God's all-vivifying breath,
16
And progress ripening to the perfect day.
Thus I deny that, changing love to hate,
The Maker would His works annihilate,
Or ruthless sweep to some dread general doom
(As if forsooth for such there were no room)
Even the smallest marvels of His power
The microscopic atoms, here one hour,
Those curious shapes and beauteous hues that gleam
In water-drops, or on the noonday beam,
Or flowers, or gems, or humbler grubs or worms,
Vitalized matter in whatever forms,
Which God The Infinite with such dear care
In His great love hath fashioned everywhere,
Inspired with life, and dowered with some mind
In close degrees according to their kind.
Immensity is vaster than all space,
And there each creature claims its welcome place,
When Earth, baptized in fire, her glory-robe,
A huge expanded spiritual globe,
Shall have full room within that gaseous sphere
For all her children born and buried here,
In spiritual bodies, like to us,
Serving their spiritual masters thus,
The kings and priests in New Jerusalem
With all creation subject unto them,
Restored to higher glories than it lost
And richer by the price its ransom cost.
Then for the creature's life, although it range
From phase to phase, from ceaseless change to change,
Yet Time compared with Endlessness appears
A cypher still though twenty million years,—
And an extinguished being hints mistake,—
Except high Wisdom willed, for mercy's sake
To terminate the lives He lent, not gave,
And doom them to extinction in the grave;
For moral evil some may faintly guess,
That, justice satisfied, love thus might bless,—
Though Scripture gives small hope of this to such
As sin presumptuously and overmuch,
And where impenitence is sealed by death
‘The fire is never quenched,’—so Jesus saith!
Alas, for sin and unrepented wrong,
Alas, for wicked habits rank and strong;
What but Omnipotence can stop the soul
In its mad race to deathless evil's goal,
What less than God Himself can save that man
Insanely bent on sinning as he can
All in a world where banished evil thrives,
And (good made obsolete) no hope survives?—
The Maker would His works annihilate,
Or ruthless sweep to some dread general doom
(As if forsooth for such there were no room)
Even the smallest marvels of His power
The microscopic atoms, here one hour,
Those curious shapes and beauteous hues that gleam
In water-drops, or on the noonday beam,
Or flowers, or gems, or humbler grubs or worms,
Vitalized matter in whatever forms,
Which God The Infinite with such dear care
In His great love hath fashioned everywhere,
Inspired with life, and dowered with some mind
In close degrees according to their kind.
Immensity is vaster than all space,
And there each creature claims its welcome place,
When Earth, baptized in fire, her glory-robe,
A huge expanded spiritual globe,
Shall have full room within that gaseous sphere
For all her children born and buried here,
17
Serving their spiritual masters thus,
The kings and priests in New Jerusalem
With all creation subject unto them,
Restored to higher glories than it lost
And richer by the price its ransom cost.
Then for the creature's life, although it range
From phase to phase, from ceaseless change to change,
Yet Time compared with Endlessness appears
A cypher still though twenty million years,—
And an extinguished being hints mistake,—
Except high Wisdom willed, for mercy's sake
To terminate the lives He lent, not gave,
And doom them to extinction in the grave;
For moral evil some may faintly guess,
That, justice satisfied, love thus might bless,—
Though Scripture gives small hope of this to such
As sin presumptuously and overmuch,
And where impenitence is sealed by death
‘The fire is never quenched,’—so Jesus saith!
Alas, for sin and unrepented wrong,
Alas, for wicked habits rank and strong;
18
In its mad race to deathless evil's goal,
What less than God Himself can save that man
Insanely bent on sinning as he can
All in a world where banished evil thrives,
And (good made obsolete) no hope survives?—
But, if the creature did no moral ill,
Love should be trusted for its being still,
And the dumb innocents ill-treated here
Shall yet on earth's regenerated sphere
Rejoice in God and yield Him gratitude,
With all things else that owe Him all their good.
Life lives for ever; nothing dies outright,
No, not the passing pageant of a night;
In memory still of some immortal mind
It leaves its fadeless photograph behind,—
And even thoughts electrically live
Continual fragrance, like the musk, to give,—
And sounds will vibrate yet in spreading rings
Till “idle words” are found eternal things:
All is infinity; this acorn's germ
Holds oaken forests for an œon's term;
That drop of water is a peopled world;
Within one fern-seed coalfields may lie furl'd;
“Iota” hath provoked religious wars;
And thistledown is wondrous as the stars!
All is Infinity; our mortal thought
Can ill achieve the finite as it ought;
We see but darkly, hear as in a dream,
And only know things are not what they seem;
With spirits, good or evil, to be found
By those who seek them, everywhere around.
Love should be trusted for its being still,
And the dumb innocents ill-treated here
Shall yet on earth's regenerated sphere
Rejoice in God and yield Him gratitude,
With all things else that owe Him all their good.
Life lives for ever; nothing dies outright,
No, not the passing pageant of a night;
In memory still of some immortal mind
It leaves its fadeless photograph behind,—
And even thoughts electrically live
Continual fragrance, like the musk, to give,—
And sounds will vibrate yet in spreading rings
Till “idle words” are found eternal things:
All is infinity; this acorn's germ
Holds oaken forests for an œon's term;
19
Within one fern-seed coalfields may lie furl'd;
“Iota” hath provoked religious wars;
And thistledown is wondrous as the stars!
All is Infinity; our mortal thought
Can ill achieve the finite as it ought;
We see but darkly, hear as in a dream,
And only know things are not what they seem;
With spirits, good or evil, to be found
By those who seek them, everywhere around.
So then in brief my Creed is truly this,
Conscience is our chief seed of woe or bliss,—
God who made all things is to all things Love
Balancing wrongs below by rights above,—
Evil seemed needful that the Good be shown
And Good was swift that Evil to atone,—
While creatures, linked together each with each,
Of one great Whole in changeful sequence teach,
Life-presence everywhere sublimely vast
And endless for the future as the past.
Conscience is our chief seed of woe or bliss,—
God who made all things is to all things Love
Balancing wrongs below by rights above,—
Evil seemed needful that the Good be shown
And Good was swift that Evil to atone,—
While creatures, linked together each with each,
Of one great Whole in changeful sequence teach,
Life-presence everywhere sublimely vast
And endless for the future as the past.
20
CREATION.
The Secret of fitness and beauty
In everything modestly lurks,
And happy for Man is the duty
Of searching out God in His works;
He showeth Himself in the creature,
And nature sun-shadows Him thus,
Discovering, feature by feature,
The face of Jehovah to us!
In everything modestly lurks,
And happy for Man is the duty
Of searching out God in His works;
He showeth Himself in the creature,
And nature sun-shadows Him thus,
Discovering, feature by feature,
The face of Jehovah to us!
By worlds, without number or measure,
How glorious His smile on the skies,—
By air-bubbles, peopled with pleasure,
How gracious His glance and how wise!
To the stages that lead to perfection
Each delicate work He hath brought;
Nor ever will crush in rejection
One atom His fingers have wrought!
How glorious His smile on the skies,—
By air-bubbles, peopled with pleasure,
How gracious His glance and how wise!
To the stages that lead to perfection
Each delicate work He hath brought;
Nor ever will crush in rejection
One atom His fingers have wrought!
21
That traceried ice on the casement,
This crystallized snow from the sky,
Compel an adoring amazement
As miracles born but to die;
Yet, though the flakes melt, their star-clusters
Still live as fair types ever true,
Repeating these forms and these lustres
Eternally fashioned anew.
This crystallized snow from the sky,
Compel an adoring amazement
As miracles born but to die;
Yet, though the flakes melt, their star-clusters
Still live as fair types ever true,
Repeating these forms and these lustres
Eternally fashioned anew.
The bud in such tenderness folded,
The tesseraed palates of snails,
The mosses so daintily moulded,
The dragonfly's lace-latten sails,—
The grandeurs of cloudland and ocean,
The tints of each garden and grove,
The marvels of music and motion,
The wonders around and above,—
The tesseraed palates of snails,
The mosses so daintily moulded,
The dragonfly's lace-latten sails,—
The grandeurs of cloudland and ocean,
The tints of each garden and grove,
The marvels of music and motion,
The wonders around and above,—
Should all this Creation be shatter'd,
This poem of God be as nought,
As if forsooth lightly it matter'd
He fail'd in the thing that He wrought?
Shall all be capriciously broken,
As children are wont with a toy,
Nor serve, through His fiat once spoken,
For drops in His river of joy?
This poem of God be as nought,
As if forsooth lightly it matter'd
He fail'd in the thing that He wrought?
22
As children are wont with a toy,
Nor serve, through His fiat once spoken,
For drops in His river of joy?
Yes! death is but change of condition,
And change treadeth ever on change,
Whilst all things in happier fruition
Through ceaseless diversity range;
For nothing shall utterly perish
Which God hath created and made;
Each child of His love will He cherish
For age upon age undecay'd!
And change treadeth ever on change,
Whilst all things in happier fruition
Through ceaseless diversity range;
For nothing shall utterly perish
Which God hath created and made;
Each child of His love will He cherish
For age upon age undecay'd!
From angels who blaze in their station
To monads that breed in the dark,
With man in this midway relation
And all that have teem'd from his Ark,
Dependent, sustain'd, in connection
As links of one bright jewelled chain,
Creation grows on to perfection,
And all things for ever Remain!
To monads that breed in the dark,
With man in this midway relation
And all that have teem'd from his Ark,
Dependent, sustain'd, in connection
As links of one bright jewelled chain,
Creation grows on to perfection,
And all things for ever Remain!
23
REDEMPTION.
Think deeply: through grace unto glory
This ransomed regenerate earth
Tells out an unendable story
Begun with—Eternity's birth:
Jehovah, the Greatest, the Highest,
Alone is unsullied in light,
And even archangels, the nighest,
Were never quite pure in His sight.
This ransomed regenerate earth
Tells out an unendable story
Begun with—Eternity's birth:
Jehovah, the Greatest, the Highest,
Alone is unsullied in light,
And even archangels, the nighest,
Were never quite pure in His sight.
For, some imperfection in creatures
Is still the true law of their life,
Unequal, of opposite natures,
With matter and spirit at strife;
And thus, from all earliest beginning,
Benevolence wrought in full strength
To rescue creation from sinning
Established in pureness at length,—
Is still the true law of their life,
Unequal, of opposite natures,
With matter and spirit at strife;
And thus, from all earliest beginning,
Benevolence wrought in full strength
To rescue creation from sinning
Established in pureness at length,—
24
Established on God The Redemption,
As grafted in Him yet again,
By destined and suffered preemption
Through future temptation and pain:
And still as a sacrifice showeth
The God in His phase as a Son,
For ever henceforth,—and, who knoweth?
From the date of Creation begun.
As grafted in Him yet again,
By destined and suffered preemption
Through future temptation and pain:
And still as a sacrifice showeth
The God in His phase as a Son,
For ever henceforth,—and, who knoweth?
From the date of Creation begun.
Since, never hath been the sad season
When sternly in solitude deep
(Revelation so whispers to reason)
Love's energy languish'd asleep:
For, even the Great Divine Essence
Though One was companion'd as Three,
Ubiquity's focussing Presence,
The spark-seed of beings to be.
When sternly in solitude deep
(Revelation so whispers to reason)
Love's energy languish'd asleep:
For, even the Great Divine Essence
Though One was companion'd as Three,
Ubiquity's focussing Presence,
The spark-seed of beings to be.
And when, as it pleased the Creator
This lowlier universe grew
Through æons of oldtime, or later
When Earth with its Adam was new,
Redemption to perfect Creation
Was still the Good Father's behest,
That matter might shine in high station
Of Spirit's own pureness possest.
This lowlier universe grew
Through æons of oldtime, or later
When Earth with its Adam was new,
25
Was still the Good Father's behest,
That matter might shine in high station
Of Spirit's own pureness possest.
Thus, Saviour and Lover and Brother!
We welcome in God being man
From reason and scripture none other
Than God's philosophical plan,
As adding Himself to the creature
He made in His infinite love
And lightening and lifting its nature
To cleanse it for glories above!
We welcome in God being man
From reason and scripture none other
Than God's philosophical plan,
As adding Himself to the creature
He made in His infinite love
And lightening and lifting its nature
To cleanse it for glories above!
These planet-worlds rolling outside us
So lightsome and glorious and great
May well be the homes that abide us
When come to the heavenly state;
Many mansions are there, many treasures,
Which Christ The Redeemer prepares
For spurners of sin and its pleasures
The children of God and His heirs!
So lightsome and glorious and great
May well be the homes that abide us
When come to the heavenly state;
Many mansions are there, many treasures,
Which Christ The Redeemer prepares
For spurners of sin and its pleasures
The children of God and His heirs!
26
JIREH-JEHOVAH.
O trials and troubles and losses in life,
What are ye but simples to strengthen my soul?
And worry and riot, the wear and the strife,
But spurrings and whippings that speed to the goal?
Yea, trampled affection, yea hopes that are crushed,
Ambitions laid low (the best mercy to pride)
Are comforted all and their murmurings hushed
By “Jireh-Jehovah, the Lord will provide.”
What are ye but simples to strengthen my soul?
And worry and riot, the wear and the strife,
But spurrings and whippings that speed to the goal?
Yea, trampled affection, yea hopes that are crushed,
Ambitions laid low (the best mercy to pride)
Are comforted all and their murmurings hushed
By “Jireh-Jehovah, the Lord will provide.”
Thou seest, Thou knowest, Thou doest all well,
Whatever is done is the work of Thy hand,
Thy footsteps are hidden, and man may not tell
The depth and the height of the thoughts Thou hast plann'd:
Yet faith in the darkness rejoices to take
Her stand on this rock in the storm-driven tide
He never will leave thee, He cannot forsake,
For—“Jireh-Jehovah, the Lord will provide.”
Whatever is done is the work of Thy hand,
Thy footsteps are hidden, and man may not tell
The depth and the height of the thoughts Thou hast plann'd:
27
Her stand on this rock in the storm-driven tide
He never will leave thee, He cannot forsake,
For—“Jireh-Jehovah, the Lord will provide.”
I would not implore Thee to spare me this loss,
I dare not desire Thee to grant me that gain,
Thou orderest rightly the crown or the cross,
The shame as the glory, the joy and the pain:
But I can rely on my Father and Friend
And pray to Him alway, as if by my side,
Contented on Him, as His child, to depend
With “Jireh-Jehovah, the Lord will provide.”
I dare not desire Thee to grant me that gain,
Thou orderest rightly the crown or the cross,
The shame as the glory, the joy and the pain:
But I can rely on my Father and Friend
And pray to Him alway, as if by my side,
Contented on Him, as His child, to depend
With “Jireh-Jehovah, the Lord will provide.”
28
FACING THE FOE.
Yes! out with the worst, on the instant, right out!
It is better—ay best—so to show it;
There is weakness in every suspicion and doubt,
There is strength in each truth when we know it:
For a fact is of God,—and upon it I'll stand,
By Providence ordered and guided,
Assured that my Father's omnipotent hand
My rod as my staff hath provided.
It is better—ay best—so to show it;
There is weakness in every suspicion and doubt,
There is strength in each truth when we know it:
For a fact is of God,—and upon it I'll stand,
By Providence ordered and guided,
Assured that my Father's omnipotent hand
My rod as my staff hath provided.
Tell frankly the worst; I can fearlessly face
All foes that contend with me fairly;
My soul with a will to the battle I brace,
And fail [do I ever fail?] rarely:
It is only when fancy suggests a false hope
For a moment to perils I truckle,—
But show me the worst,—with its evil to cope
My sword to my wrist I will buckle!
All foes that contend with me fairly;
My soul with a will to the battle I brace,
And fail [do I ever fail?] rarely:
29
For a moment to perils I truckle,—
But show me the worst,—with its evil to cope
My sword to my wrist I will buckle!
With a strong water-screw the more pressure more force;
And thus through calamity's hour
The Christian knight-errant is sped on his course
And stablish'd and girded in power;
And the worst it is best to be told at the first
That so we may meet it and slay it,
Not hiding like cowards as fearing that worst
But facing the phantom to lay it!
And thus through calamity's hour
The Christian knight-errant is sped on his course
And stablish'd and girded in power;
And the worst it is best to be told at the first
That so we may meet it and slay it,
Not hiding like cowards as fearing that worst
But facing the phantom to lay it!
30
INFALLIBILITY.
O climax of impudence, priestcraft, and pride!
O summit of all superstitions beside,
Which not even Buddha nor Llama as yet
Has reach'd in Japan or in denser Thibet!
To drain from the nations their wisdom and worth,—
Say bishops and abbots, as salt of the earth—
And force them to utter, in rochet and cope,
Two blasphemous lies of the Virgin and Pope,
By voting the twain, if they dare and they can,
Immaculate Woman! Infallible Man!
O summit of all superstitions beside,
Which not even Buddha nor Llama as yet
Has reach'd in Japan or in denser Thibet!
To drain from the nations their wisdom and worth,—
Say bishops and abbots, as salt of the earth—
And force them to utter, in rochet and cope,
Two blasphemous lies of the Virgin and Pope,
By voting the twain, if they dare and they can,
Immaculate Woman! Infallible Man!
O Reason! can this be the age of thy light?
Religion—is Christendom dark as the night?
These friars in cassocks, these monks in their cowls,
Are they blind at high noon, like the bats and the owls?
O Progress! O Liberty! where are ye now,
With Jesuit pilot, and Pope at the prow—
Stranded in ignorance, wreck'd on its reef,
And the dotaged old world come to middle-age grief?
Religion—is Christendom dark as the night?
These friars in cassocks, these monks in their cowls,
Are they blind at high noon, like the bats and the owls?
31
With Jesuit pilot, and Pope at the prow—
Stranded in ignorance, wreck'd on its reef,
And the dotaged old world come to middle-age grief?
Will ye put out the eyes of mankind, O ye priests?
Can ye drive us meek laymen as patient brute beasts?
We have ears that can hear, we have eyes that must see,
We have tongues that will speak with the shout of the free,
And we stoutly protest that no soul can believe
What the world is forsooth to be forced to receive,—
That Mary, pure Mary, to whom it was given
Unworthy herself to find favour of Heaven,
No longer mere woman, the Virgin of earth,
Is verily Goddess by miracle-birth!
That poor Pio Nono, and popes to succeed,
For ever be dubbed an infallible breed,
With privileged pocket omniscience forsooth
Of knowing and speaking and being all truth?
What? Science, Light, Freedom!—are ye three to stand
Tame Caryatides link'd hand in hand,
A tripod of idleness, lifting on high
Popery's thurible sick'ning the sky?
What? is there no Protestant life in us left,
No zeal in the Church, of her Master bereft,
That thus all mankind are content to stand by
Like children or slaves countersigning each lie,
While England's old boldness is stunn'd and downhurl'd,
And Rome's new audacity staggers the world?
Can ye drive us meek laymen as patient brute beasts?
We have ears that can hear, we have eyes that must see,
We have tongues that will speak with the shout of the free,
And we stoutly protest that no soul can believe
What the world is forsooth to be forced to receive,—
That Mary, pure Mary, to whom it was given
Unworthy herself to find favour of Heaven,
No longer mere woman, the Virgin of earth,
Is verily Goddess by miracle-birth!
That poor Pio Nono, and popes to succeed,
For ever be dubbed an infallible breed,
With privileged pocket omniscience forsooth
Of knowing and speaking and being all truth?
What? Science, Light, Freedom!—are ye three to stand
Tame Caryatides link'd hand in hand,
A tripod of idleness, lifting on high
Popery's thurible sick'ning the sky?
32
No zeal in the Church, of her Master bereft,
That thus all mankind are content to stand by
Like children or slaves countersigning each lie,
While England's old boldness is stunn'd and downhurl'd,
And Rome's new audacity staggers the world?
No, Delilah, No! Enchantress of old,
In purple, and crimson, and jewels, and gold,
Thy withys were weak the young Samson to bind
When the great Reformation unshackled man's mind;
And since, though there were (as we gave them) new ropes,
He burst through that Gallio-indulgence of Popes;
And afterward, though his strong locks (it would seem)
Had been woven and wound to that stiff weaver's beam,
Circumstance, coiling us all in its web,
Yet he broke straight away with the beam on his head;
And now that his locks are by Delilah shorn,
Through sins of unfaithfulness sadly foresworn,
Still, Samson, who grows his strong shock-hair meanwhile,
Is perilous, spite of his liberal smile;
And if Romish Philistines bring him to bay,
In Dagon's own Fisherman's Temple to-day,
Beware! though his eyes be put out, where he stands
He will tear down your pillars with terrible hands,
And the crafty three thousand who scoffed at him there,
Shall be whelm'd by his strength to the depths of despair!
In purple, and crimson, and jewels, and gold,
Thy withys were weak the young Samson to bind
When the great Reformation unshackled man's mind;
And since, though there were (as we gave them) new ropes,
He burst through that Gallio-indulgence of Popes;
And afterward, though his strong locks (it would seem)
Had been woven and wound to that stiff weaver's beam,
Circumstance, coiling us all in its web,
Yet he broke straight away with the beam on his head;
And now that his locks are by Delilah shorn,
Through sins of unfaithfulness sadly foresworn,
Still, Samson, who grows his strong shock-hair meanwhile,
Is perilous, spite of his liberal smile;
33
In Dagon's own Fisherman's Temple to-day,
Beware! though his eyes be put out, where he stands
He will tear down your pillars with terrible hands,
And the crafty three thousand who scoffed at him there,
Shall be whelm'd by his strength to the depths of despair!
Rise, Italy, rise! wake, chivalrous Spain!
Arouse thee, Britannia, and shake off this chain!
Let Germany shout to the quick soul of France,
Let all the world round bid the standards advance,
The Standards of Freedom, and Progress, and Light,
Of Science and Reason, Religion and Right,
Driving before them all darkness and wrong,
And the shames and the shams that have triumph'd too long!
Arouse thee, Britannia, and shake off this chain!
Let Germany shout to the quick soul of France,
Let all the world round bid the standards advance,
The Standards of Freedom, and Progress, and Light,
Of Science and Reason, Religion and Right,
Driving before them all darkness and wrong,
And the shames and the shams that have triumph'd too long!
34
A MORNING HYMN.
Once again my spirit waits
At a morrow's golden gates,
As in resurrection there
With the frankincense of prayer:
At a morrow's golden gates,
As in resurrection there
With the frankincense of prayer:
Once again from slumbers deep,
From the mimic death of sleep,
Thy good hand hath raised me up
To taste anew life's morning cup.
From the mimic death of sleep,
Thy good hand hath raised me up
To taste anew life's morning cup.
Praise, in psalms that Asaph sung,
Quicken from my heart and tongue!
Prayer, in words that David spake,
Kindle round me as I wake!
Quicken from my heart and tongue!
Prayer, in words that David spake,
Kindle round me as I wake!
Graciously in me renew
Thy good Spirit right and true,
Purging every taint of sin,
Clean without, and pure within.
Thy good Spirit right and true,
Purging every taint of sin,
Clean without, and pure within.
35
Clothe me in the beauteous dress
Of my Saviour's righteousness,
And Thy perfumed graces shed
Freely on my heart and head.
Of my Saviour's righteousness,
And Thy perfumed graces shed
Freely on my heart and head.
Guide my zeal for God and man
Still to do what good I can;
Lead Thou me in Thy straight way
Every minute of this day.
Still to do what good I can;
Lead Thou me in Thy straight way
Every minute of this day.
Thou, in whom I live and move,
Fill me with Thy light and love!
Thou, my guide and guard till death,
Breathe on me Thy living breath!
Fill me with Thy light and love!
Thou, my guide and guard till death,
Breathe on me Thy living breath!
So, as may become Thy child
Saved, forgiven, reconciled,
I will work with all my power
For my Master every hour;
Saved, forgiven, reconciled,
I will work with all my power
For my Master every hour;
And when nightfall gathers nigh
And I lay me down to die,
Thou shalt be my life and light,
Killing death, and conquering night!
And I lay me down to die,
Thou shalt be my life and light,
Killing death, and conquering night!
36
AN EVENING HYMN.
Yet once more, the busy day
With its work hath passed away,
Yet once more I seek my bed,
As alive among the dead.
With its work hath passed away,
Yet once more I seek my bed,
As alive among the dead.
Ere I lay me down to rest,
By Thy blessing ever blest,
Give me grace with all my might
Thee to serve by day and night:
By Thy blessing ever blest,
Give me grace with all my might
Thee to serve by day and night:
Thee upon my knees to praise
As a child—Thy child—always,
Father! unto Thee to pray
By my bedside night and day.
As a child—Thy child—always,
Father! unto Thee to pray
By my bedside night and day.
Let my prayer go up to heaven
Hour by hour to live forgiven,
And let all my yearnings be
For my treasure found in Thee!
Hour by hour to live forgiven,
And let all my yearnings be
For my treasure found in Thee!
37
For Thy love my soul to fill,
For deliverance from all ill,
For myself, my friends, my foes
In all our wants and sins and woes.
For deliverance from all ill,
For myself, my friends, my foes
In all our wants and sins and woes.
As confided to Thy care
All my needs I pour in prayer,
Asking Thee to give all good
And—that best gift, gratitude.
All my needs I pour in prayer,
Asking Thee to give all good
And—that best gift, gratitude.
Have I lived the past day through
Kind, and just, and pure, and true?
Still in word and deed and thought
Walking as a Christian ought?
Kind, and just, and pure, and true?
Still in word and deed and thought
Walking as a Christian ought?
Pardon, pardon for all sin!
Grace to heal all sores within!
Praise and thanks for all beside,
My God, my Father, and my Guide.
Grace to heal all sores within!
Praise and thanks for all beside,
My God, my Father, and my Guide.
Let Thine angel, sent from Thee
Now be ministering to me,
In Thy love to close mine eyes,
And sleep in faith, in hope to rise!
Now be ministering to me,
In Thy love to close mine eyes,
And sleep in faith, in hope to rise!
38
LIFE-WORK.
No man can die, till all his work is done:
But who shall say, what work he had to do?—
With some, the journey was but just begun,
With some, the fight would seem not half fought through,
And others drop just ere the goal is won,
And everywhere the winners are too few,
And general failure is the general lot,—
Why say then—Work undone, Man dieth not?—
But who shall say, what work he had to do?—
With some, the journey was but just begun,
With some, the fight would seem not half fought through,
And others drop just ere the goal is won,
And everywhere the winners are too few,
And general failure is the general lot,—
Why say then—Work undone, Man dieth not?—
—Natheless, immortal till his tasks are o'er,
Is every one of us upon this earth:
But who hath guess'd his tasks, or learnt their lore,
Till death had seal'd the secrets of his birth?
The failures we so selfishly deplore
May stand in Providence our sterling worth,
The causes wherefore we have lived and died,
Contentment and religion shaming pride!
Is every one of us upon this earth:
But who hath guess'd his tasks, or learnt their lore,
Till death had seal'd the secrets of his birth?
39
May stand in Providence our sterling worth,
The causes wherefore we have lived and died,
Contentment and religion shaming pride!
For, as in choice mosaic, creature-life
Is like a tesselated pavement shown,
In the Great Temple with God's glory rife
Wherein are fixed His footstool and His throne;
And there all lights and shades, the peace the strife
The good and evil, paint His praise alone,—
And every phase of character is there,
In every coloured morsel, dark or fair!
Is like a tesselated pavement shown,
In the Great Temple with God's glory rife
Wherein are fixed His footstool and His throne;
And there all lights and shades, the peace the strife
The good and evil, paint His praise alone,—
And every phase of character is there,
In every coloured morsel, dark or fair!
Rest well-assured, Creation serves Him well,
Even the wicked, though they mean not so:
And those who fought and stood, or fought and fell,
Wrought for His triumph, whether friend or foe:
All work true work, though hard it be to tell
How good is bred of ill, or bliss of woe;
Yet somehow, somewhere, and at some far when,
God shall delight in all the sons of men!
Even the wicked, though they mean not so:
And those who fought and stood, or fought and fell,
Wrought for His triumph, whether friend or foe:
All work true work, though hard it be to tell
How good is bred of ill, or bliss of woe;
Yet somehow, somewhere, and at some far when,
God shall delight in all the sons of men!
40
So, faint not thou; go gladly on thy way,
And press straight on, though there be little light;
Help all things good, whilst it is called today,
And do thy duteous best with all thy might:
Then, be thy nearing future what it may
Thou shalt be blest therein by day and night,
Blest in the faith for all thy work well done
Wherever in thy course the goal be won!
And press straight on, though there be little light;
Help all things good, whilst it is called today,
And do thy duteous best with all thy might:
Then, be thy nearing future what it may
Thou shalt be blest therein by day and night,
Blest in the faith for all thy work well done
Wherever in thy course the goal be won!
| A creed, etcetera | |