AN IMMQRTAI 
 
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CP<. 
 
MAN IMMORTAL. 
 
 ALLEGORICAL POEM. 
 
 BY y 
 
 WM. STITT TAYLOR. 
 
 J3 
 
 T 
 
 We shall not die." — Habakkuk, i. 12. 
 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 
 1891. 
 
-ps 
 
 
 Copyright, 1891, by J. B, Lippincott Company. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
To the sainted loved ones 
 
 Of hallowed memory, 
 
 Who have already reached 
 
 The "hills of light," 
 
 And to all those 
 
 Now contending 
 
 In this mortal fight. 
 
 Who are comforted and sustained, 
 
 Amid the shadows 
 
 Of life's battle-night, 
 
 By the grandest of hopes 
 
 Which God e'er gave, — 
 
 That of a blessed immortality 
 
 Beyond the grave, — 
 
 This work is affectionately dedicated, 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
nio: ^?'? 
 
 " Lo-namouth /" 
 
 " We shall not die!''' 
 Cxrand announcement 
 
 From the sky. 
 In the sacred 
 
 Hebrew tongue, 
 Hope for all 
 
 The years to come. 
 Sublimely down 
 
 The centuries sweeping, 
 In Almighty 
 
 Accents speaking. 
 Glory waiteth now 
 
 For clay ! 
 Incorruption 
 
 On decay! 
 Eternity gildeth 
 
 Carnal gloom ! 
 Earth is fruition's 
 
 Ante-room ! 
 1* 
 
For, midst the wreck 
 Of mortal strife, 
 
 I plant the standard 
 Of eternal life. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction 9 
 
 I. — Immortality's Greeting 17 
 
 II. — Appeal of Nature 21 
 
 III. — Immortality to Nature 41 
 
 IV. — Claim of Time 55 
 
 V. — Immortality to Time 71 
 
 VI. — Suit of Death 85 
 
 VII. — Immortality to Death Ill 
 
 VIII. — Declaration of the Grave 127 
 
 IX. — Immortality to the Grave 151 
 
 X. — Defence of Hell 167 
 
 XI. — Immortality to Hell 185 
 
 XII. — Prayer of Man 215 
 
 XIII. — Immortality to Man 239 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 There is a time, 
 
 'Twixt eve and morn, 
 When the soul, 
 
 From Earth's care borne, 
 Mounteth up, 
 And seeming its house 
 
 Of flesh to flee. 
 Attests 
 
 Its Immortality. 
 
 'Tvvas 'midst the nightmare 
 
 Of a troubled sleep ; 
 It seemed as though 
 
 Upon an angry deep, 
 On an ocean 
 
 Without shore, 
 A castaway 
 
 Despised, forsaken ; 
 
10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 When, as though 
 
 By some good angel taken, 
 1 drifted to the boundaries 
 
 Of the evermore. 
 There I had a vision. 
 It was ecstasy in elysian. 
 
 And a single moment of it o'er 
 More than repaid me 
 For all the troubles 
 
 I had ever known before. 
 But what tongue of dust 
 
 Can tell that story? 
 What eye of Earth 
 
 E'er beheld such matchless glory? 
 What finite mind 
 
 Could of such heights conceive ? 
 Or mortal Man 
 
 The veriest of its truths believe? 
 Not a single word 
 
 Had yet been spoken 
 From out the glamour 
 
 Of that splendor broken ; 
 But as I lay there, 
 Entranced in rapture. 
 
 Bathing in that golden tide, 
 Suddenly, from out the brightness, 
 A radiant form 
 
INTRODUCTION. H 
 
 Came to my side, 
 And in tones of wondrous clearness, 
 
 With a cadence sweet and low. 
 Bent above and whispered to me, 
 
 '•' Come, we're ready now to go." 
 Willingly I obeyed the summons; 
 
 Anxious was I to be free; 
 Eager to reach that better country 
 
 I had yearned so long to see. 
 So I quickly rose and followed, 
 
 And, as we journeyed on, 
 A mount of nameless grandeur 
 Eose before us 
 That some glorious object 
 
 Seemed to rest upon. 
 Surely, thought I, 
 This is Heaven ; 
 Here's the land 
 
 Which hath no night. 
 Farewell, Earth! 
 I've reached its fulness, 
 I'm out of darkness 
 
 Into light. 
 But scarce had another step been taken 
 
 Towards that nearing glory-land, 
 When lo ! without a moment's warning, 
 
 We met and joined a wondrous band, 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Each, like myself, attended 
 
 By a glorious angel guide, 
 Wbo, seemingly afraid lest aught befall, 
 
 Kept constantly at their side. 
 One of these was old and feeble, 
 
 Weary-worn with care ; 
 His limbs, they tottered as he walked, 
 And like a snow-drift 
 
 Was his hair. 
 One was a very giant, 
 
 And frightful to behold ; 
 He strode along 
 Like a conqueror, 
 
 With a mien majestic and bold. 
 Another was grim and ghastly, 
 
 With a hollow, hideous leer. 
 And mould was clinging to his clothes. 
 
 Which savored of the bier. 
 Another still was black as midnight. 
 
 With a fearfully distorted face, 
 On which both gloom, remorse, despair, — 
 
 All seemed to have a place. 
 But one — the last of all the train — 
 Was beautiful as the dawn 
 
 And lovely as Eden's bowers : 
 Her hair was woven of sunlight, 
 
 And her vestments were garlands of flowers. 
 
INTR OD UCTION. 13 
 
 A rare perfume hung around her, 
 
 Which ladened all of the air, 
 And, even with angel attendants, 
 
 She seemed the fairest being there. 
 Thus — a strangely-mixed procession — 
 
 We continued our onward way. 
 Until at last we reached the mount 
 
 Bathed in effulgent day, 
 Where, in waiting to receive us, 
 
 Stood a blest, immortal band. 
 With one who high above them sat enthroned, 
 
 Like a ruler in the land. 
 A dazzling lustre hid her face. 
 
 Shining forms about her flew ; 
 A burning light flashed from her brow, 
 Which, far out into surrounding space. 
 
 Wondrous rays of beauty threw. 
 Heavenly incense filled the air. 
 
 Clouds of flame about her hung, 
 While anthems such as ear ne'er heard 
 
 Were by hosts seraphic sung. 
 Speechless with wonder. 
 
 On that gorgeous scene I gazed. 
 Though almost blinded by its brightness, 
 
 And by its grandeur dazed ; 
 Yet feeling, as I looked the while. 
 
 Pleasures such as earth ne'er craved ; 
 2 
 
14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Joys unutterable in being there ; 
 
 Raptures infinite in feeling saved. 
 A moment only 
 
 Did the vision last. 
 I looked again, 
 
 And it had passed, — 
 Passed like a meteor 
 
 Athwart the sky, — 
 Passed like the lightning's 
 
 Flash on high. 
 Leaving naught save a shining one 
 
 To guard our band, 
 And she enthroned 
 
 Who ruled the land. 
 Who now, with voice 
 
 As of the spheres. 
 Which fell like Heaven 
 
 Upon mine ears. 
 Asked of the angel 
 
 Standing near, 
 "Who and whence came 
 
 These beings here?" 
 Thus addressed, the angel 
 
 Bowed her head, 
 Bent the knee. 
 
 And slowly said, 
 " Here is Time and Nature, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 Death and Hell, 
 Victorious Grave, 
 
 And Man, who fell : 
 All come that they 
 
 Thy glories now may see; 
 Come to tell 
 
 What grounds there he 
 On which they found 
 
 Their claims to thee, 
 
 Immortality! to thee. 
 But, I have told them, 
 
 One and all. 
 Thou art not 
 
 Of the Earth at all. 
 None of her subjects 
 Bear thy royal seal. 
 That realm of bliss 
 
 Which alone is thine 
 Lies be3-ond this 'vale of tears,' 
 
 Bej-ond the boundaries of Time. 
 Ah, j-es ! thou art 
 Of a fairer clime. 
 
 Of infinitely greater worth 
 And nobler lineage 
 
 Than aught of Earth. 
 This vapor-like existence, 
 
 This fleeting breath, 
 
16 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 This cumbersome mortality 
 Wiiich dissolves in Death ; 
 
 This charnel-house of Nature, 
 Where virtue fell, 
 
 This fallen planet 
 Which peoples Hell, 
 Are all unknown to thee. 
 
 Thy home is in the ' many mansions/ 
 Beside the 'jasper sea,' 
 
 And th}'' name is 
 God's own eternity." 
 
 A pause which seemed 
 
 With destiny endued, 
 And then, raethought, 
 
 In tones subdued, 
 This wondrous 
 
 Colloquy ensued. 
 
I. 
 
 2* 
 
 1 
 
IMMORTALITY'S GREETING. 
 
 Creatures of alien 
 
 Climes afar, 
 Ye who here 
 
 As suppliants are, 
 Dire creations 
 
 For blighted strands. 
 Fallen beings 
 
 From sin-cursed lands. 
 Mortal striplings, 
 
 Finite things, 
 "Who fain would drink 
 
 Of immortal springs. 
 Slake thy thirst 
 
 At founts on high ; 
 Quaif of me 
 
 And never die. 
 Though surely 
 
 'Tis a thing untold, 
 For light a conference 
 
 "With its shades to hold ; 
 Still, that listening Earth 
 
 19 
 
20 IMMORTALITY'S GREETING. 
 
 The truth may know 
 Concerning the part 
 
 Each plays below 
 In God's stupendous, 
 
 Wondrous plan, 
 Which compasseth the eternal 
 
 Life of Man, — 
 For this once 
 
 I bend mine ear, 
 And will in patience 
 
 Thy petitions hear, 
 Although in truth 
 
 I greatly fear 
 There is very little 
 
 That's not mortal here; 
 While perchance, of thee all 
 
 Regenerate, a single one, 
 Who, through much tribulation, 
 
 May to glory come. 
 But of this anon. 
 
 Now may each in brief relate 
 The claims possessed 
 
 To my estate. 
 And as, in turn. 
 
 These pleas are told. 
 Then to each an answer 
 
 I'll unfold. 
 
II. 
 
 S[ppeal of Mtmt. 
 
APPEAL OF NATURE. 
 
 O THOU being, 
 
 Blest of light! 
 Custodian grand 
 
 Of regions bright 
 Bordering on 
 
 The crystal sea, 
 Rising, boundless, 
 
 To eternity. 
 E'en the realms 
 
 Of bliss above, 
 For aye illumed 
 
 With Godhead's love ; 
 Dazzling heights 
 
 Of mounts divine. 
 Towering o'er 
 
 The vales of Time ; 
 Celestial regions, 
 
 Glory's land 
 Of deathless shoi'e 
 
 And graveless strand ; 
 
 23 
 
24 APPEAL OF NATURE. 
 
 Populous 
 
 With angelic throngs, 
 Eesonant 
 
 With seraphic songs, 
 Where the tree 
 
 Of healing grows, 
 Where life's river 
 
 Ever flows 
 By the throne 
 
 Of monarchs' King, 
 To which all worlds 
 
 Their homage bring; 
 Clad in robes 
 
 Of matchless state. 
 In audience here 
 
 At Heaven's gate ; 
 Vision fair 
 
 Of endless day. 
 Glorious insignia 
 
 Of Almighty sway, 
 Sublime impersonation 
 
 Of eternal truth, 
 Majestic exponent 
 
 Of unaging youth, 
 Priestess holy 
 
 At beings' shrine, 
 Empress regent 
 
APPEAL OF NATURE. 25 
 
 Of its natal climo. 
 'Tis Nature; I, 
 
 "Who first to thee, — 
 The representative 
 
 Of sovereignty, — 
 In regal obeisance 
 
 Bends the knee. 
 As becometh a vassal 
 
 Of Divinity; 
 For though thy home 
 
 Is with the King, 
 From -whence dominion 
 
 All doth spring; 
 And while thy sway 
 
 For evermore 
 Doth sweep the Heaven 
 
 Of heavens o'er ; 
 Still, not even this 
 
 Doth all include, — 
 God's empire 
 
 Is infinitude, — 
 And e'en such compass 
 
 Scarce defines 
 The bounds in which 
 
 His glory shines ; 
 For, outreaching far 
 
 Angelic flight, 
 3 
 
26 APPEAL OF NATURE. 
 
 Exists the structures 
 
 Of His might. 
 Beyond all space 
 
 His word hath formed, 
 His presence blessed, 
 
 And love adorned; 
 To all immensity 
 
 His work extends; 
 There is no point 
 
 At which it ends. 
 And o'er these regions 
 
 Vast, sublime, — 
 Creations all 
 
 Of hands divine, — 
 From where the farthermost 
 
 World had birth 
 E'en down to this 
 
 That's called " the Earth ;" 
 O'er this wide range, 
 
 Arrayed in light, — 
 A veritable wilderness 
 
 Of systems bright, — 
 With thickets dense 
 
 Of orbs serene, 
 Which flash afar 
 
 In gold and green ; 
 From out a labyrinth 
 
APPEAL OF NATURE. 27 
 
 Of blinding suns, 
 Which line the course 
 
 The comet runs, 
 And with burning luminaries 
 
 Swurra, like bees, 
 About the boughs 
 
 Of blazing trees, 
 Where flaming planets 
 
 Crowd the ground, 
 'Midst fiery sentinels 
 
 Clustered round 
 In starry galaxies 
 
 Which, like the sand, 
 With constellations 
 
 Strew the strand, 
 And fringe with glory 
 
 O'er and o'er 
 The uttermost bounds 
 
 Of beings' shore, 
 As on and on 
 
 In glistening spheres. 
 Up and up 
 
 In glittering tiers. 
 They stretch and widen 
 
 Into space. 
 Mirroring forth 
 
 Their Maker's face 
 
28 APPEAL OF NATURE. 
 
 In Hercules' 
 
 And Orion's sway, 
 Aquila's splendor 
 
 And the Bear's display, 
 The Pleiades 
 
 And Milky-Way, 
 Zodiacal wonders 
 
 And Aurora's day. 
 Stellar dust 
 
 And mistings gray 
 From the glowing 
 
 "Worlds away, — 
 Every luminous speck 
 
 A star, 
 Blistering centres 
 
 At points afar, 
 With numberless satellites 
 
 Thronged around, 
 Which roll and soar 
 
 In depths profound; 
 Magnitude 
 
 On magnitude, 
 Each in its own 
 
 Beatitude, 
 Ever, ever 
 
 Towering high, 
 Story by story, 
 
APPEAL OF NATURE. 29 
 
 Through the sky, 
 Until about the throne 
 
 They stand, 
 The outposts 
 
 Of a subject land, 
 And o'er every realm 
 
 In this domain — 
 Of which thine own's 
 
 The suzerain — 
 I rule by grace. 
 
 In adoration 
 Behold me, Heaven : 
 
 I am Creation. 
 Of a lineage 
 
 Like to thine, 
 In the self-same 
 
 Royal line. 
 Crowned and sceptred 
 
 Just like thee, 
 Sister queens 
 
 Of Deity, 
 Reigning o'er 
 
 Dominions wide. 
 Kingdom and province, 
 
 Side by side. 
 Only thou 
 
 At empire's seat; 
 3* 
 
30 APPEAL OF NATURE. 
 
 I the footstool 
 
 For its feet. 
 Thou the elder, 
 
 Hence, of right, 
 Thine the throne 
 
 Supreme in light. 
 But though I serve 
 
 While thou dost reign, 
 Still, our kinship 
 
 Doth remain. 
 Thou mayst disown, 
 
 But ne'er deny- 
 That I'm a princess 
 
 From the sky ; 
 For, God-created, 
 
 Here I stand 
 A member of 
 
 His family band, 
 His very child. 
 
 The same as thee 
 In common heirship 
 
 To eternity ; 
 And with this birthright 
 
 Fixed on high, 
 'Tis a thing impossible 
 
 For me to die. 
 I therefore claim. 
 
APPEAL OF NATURE. 31 
 
 As here I bend, 
 That, e'en as thou, 
 
 I have no end. 
 But come, behold 
 
 My glorious sway. 
 E'en 'neath the sun 
 
 Of earthly day. 
 Gaze upon 
 
 My living age, 
 Open wide 
 
 Its pictured page, 
 And through and through 
 
 These marvels grand 
 Canst thou not see 
 
 The Father's hand ? 
 And is there aught 
 
 Which He hath made 
 That is not 
 
 Of eternal grade ? 
 Is yon orb's mission 
 
 But to shine 
 A little while 
 
 And then decline? 
 Are moon and stars 
 
 But fixed about 
 To gild the night 
 
 And then go out ? 
 
32 APPEAL OF NATURE. 
 
 Or e'en this universe, — 
 
 The least of spheres 
 With which it runs 
 
 The I'ound of years, 
 And yet a mighty, 
 
 Majestic whole. 
 With glory crowned 
 
 From pole to pole, — 
 Is it a bubble 
 
 Yast and fair, 
 But destined 
 
 To dissolve in air? 
 Why, God in person 
 
 Staked the ground 
 On which these wonderf 
 
 All are found. 
 His own blest fingers 
 
 Wove their skies, 
 And decked them 
 
 With celestial dyes. 
 His Omnipotent self 
 
 Their fabrics framed. 
 Invested, beautified. 
 
 And named ; 
 And then, as if 
 
 To closer bind, 
 To all these charms 
 
APPEAL OF NATURE. 33 
 
 He added mind ; 
 For even here 
 
 Upon this earth 
 He gave His very- 
 Essence birth, 
 Clothed it 
 
 In a form sublime, 
 Patterned after 
 
 The Divine, 
 Placed it 
 
 At dominion's helm, 
 Made it Lord 
 
 Of all the realm ; 
 And what an earldom ! 
 
 Come and see 
 This gorgeous 
 
 Heavenly dependency: 
 See it on its 
 
 Borders grand. 
 See its oceans 
 
 Girt with sand. 
 See its islands, 
 
 See its strand, 
 See its heavens 
 
 And see its land ; 
 See it in its 
 
 Verdant powers, 
 
34 APPEAL OF NATURE. 
 
 See its shrubs 
 
 And leafy towers, 
 See its grasses, 
 
 See its bowers. 
 See its ferns 
 
 And see its flowers ; 
 See it in its 
 
 Eealms of light. 
 See its rays' 
 
 Inspiring might. 
 See it radiant, 
 
 See it bright, 
 See its days 
 
 And see its night; 
 See it 'neath its 
 
 Seasons' glow, 
 See its buds 
 
 Begin to blow, 
 See its golden 
 
 Harvests grow, 
 Then its mellowings 
 
 And its snow ; 
 See it where its 
 
 Fountains play, 
 See its waters' 
 
 Varied sway — 
 Eivers, brooks, 
 
APPEAL OF NATURE. 35 
 
 And rills away — 
 From the rising 
 
 To the bay; 
 See it in its 
 
 Wide domains, 
 See its valleys, 
 
 Hills, and plains, 
 Cliffs and crags 
 
 And mountain-chains, 
 With the sublimity 
 
 Which o'er them reigns ; 
 See it in its 
 
 Prospects fair 
 Of tbe sea, the main. 
 
 And air. 
 Beauty's sheen 
 
 And grandeur's glare 
 Eound the life 
 
 Eesplendent there; 
 See it in its 
 
 Boundless store, 
 E'er provided 
 
 On before; 
 Bounty's yield 
 
 And blessings pour 
 All its parts 
 
 And sections o'er ; 
 
36 APPEAL OF NATURE. 
 
 See it in its 
 
 Harmonies, 
 Fellowships, 
 
 And symphonies, 
 Glorious, grand 
 
 Affinities 
 Grouped in blest 
 
 Communities ; 
 See it in its 
 
 Altitudes, 
 Fathomless depths, 
 
 And latitudes, 
 Circling zones 
 
 And longitudes, 
 See the globe 
 
 Which all includes; 
 See it in its 
 
 Might secure, 
 See it then 
 
 In miniature, — 
 Sunbeams, sands, 
 
 And rain-drops pure, — 
 See the worlds 
 
 "Which these immure ; 
 See it in its 
 
 Little things, — 
 Blades and blossoms, 
 
APPEAL OF NATURE. 37 
 
 Motes and springs, — 
 See the majesty 
 
 Its frailty brings 
 'Neath the fold 
 
 Of mystery's wings ; 
 See its 
 
 Animalcule 
 Of infinitesimal 
 
 Quantity, 
 Living atoms, 
 
 Bright and free, 
 And each endowed 
 
 With destiny; 
 See it exultant, 
 
 See it all, — 
 In grand divisions 
 
 And globules small, — 
 Insect's cell 
 
 And manorial hall, 
 Obscure particle 
 
 And sovereign ball; 
 And, seeing, tell me. 
 
 Can it be 
 That naught of this 
 
 Belongs to thee? 
 Why, every mite 
 
 Within this girth 
 
38 APPEAL OF NATURE. 
 
 Is the offspring wondrous 
 
 Of Omniscient birth. 
 The veriest atomy 
 
 Here contained 
 The Infinite's handiwork 
 
 By Heaven sustained ; 
 While of existence 
 
 Herein rife, 
 Whom other than Deity 
 
 Iraparteth life? 
 And who else, then, 
 
 I fain would know. 
 Could have fashioned Earth 
 
 Or adorned it so? 
 And wouldst thou say 
 
 That climes like these. 
 In which the very 
 
 Godhead breathes, 
 Are not as absolute 
 
 As their King, 
 And deathless 
 
 'Neath His sheltering wing? 
 But hark ! list to the song. 
 
 Hear the strain from abroad ; 
 'Tis Creation's praises 
 
 To its Creator, — God ; 
 'Tis the homage of the creature 
 
APPEAL OF NATURE. 39 
 
 Eising up to the sky, — 
 A vast realm adoring 
 
 Its Maker on high ; 
 Exhibiting the wisdom 
 
 Which His goodness doth bless, 
 Publishing the greatness 
 
 He alone doth possess ; 
 Proclaiming the majesty 
 
 Which surroundeth His thi'one. 
 While declaring the glory 
 
 Of our Lord alone. 
 And surely in these 
 
 My kingdom endures; 
 For if they are His, 
 
 Are they not likewise yours? 
 And doth not these jewels 
 
 Effulgent in me 
 Shine on through the future 
 
 Coexistent with thee? 
 
III. 
 
 Jfmmoitalitg to ^ntnvt. 
 
 4* 
 
IMMORTALITY TO NATURE. 
 
 Alas! no, fair Creation, 
 
 I am not found in thee. 
 For in all of thy glories 
 
 Thou'rt a stranger to me. 
 Things eternal and finite 
 
 Can never align, 
 So I am not yours, 
 
 Neither canst thou be mine. 
 All thy forms and thy beauties 
 
 Exist but a day, 
 And are rapidly, 
 
 Eapidly passing away ; 
 For though truly by Heaven 
 
 Conceived and designed, — 
 A marvel of prowess 
 
 And wisdom combined, — 
 And though erstwhile thus fashioned 
 
 By the Father above, 
 And resplendently dressed 
 
 In the garb of His love ; 
 
 43 
 
44 IMMORTALITY TO NATURE. 
 
 Though crowned with perfection 
 
 And sceptred with grace, 
 And e'en at the throne's step 
 
 Allotted a place 
 'Midst the regal and princely 
 
 Of Deity's court, 
 With the kingly and priestly 
 
 Of the Lord to consort; 
 Though attuned to the paeans 
 
 Of Divinity's praise, 
 Throughout all futurit}^ 
 
 Its anthems to raise, 
 And though endowed with existence 
 
 As wondrous as God, 
 And called to an empire 
 
 In its fulness as broad ; 
 Still, these glows were of morning, 
 
 Thy day since hath fled. 
 And meridian splendors 
 
 At evening are dead. 
 All this was of spring-time, 
 
 But e'en thy summer's now flown. 
 And wintry winds howl 
 
 Where the autumn hath blown. 
 Such alone thy blest advent, 
 
 In its unequalled prime, 
 While, worn now and wasted, 
 
IMMORTALITY TO NATURE. 45 
 
 Thou art stranded in Time ; 
 For sin hath crept into 
 
 Thy domain, once so bright, 
 And the curse doth envelop 
 
 Thy realm in its night. 
 Broadcast o'er thy kingdom 
 
 The tare hath been sown. 
 And the harvest now claims 
 
 Of the seeding ita own ; 
 Hence thy scenes of enchantment 
 
 Are but chimeras of air 
 In which vapors seem lasting 
 
 And the dying look fair ; 
 For thou hast nothing enduring, 
 
 No power that can save; 
 But one end awaiting. 
 
 And that is — the Grave, 
 Whose gaunt fortress. Oblivion, 
 
 E'en this hour doth contain 
 The very props of thy throne, 
 
 With the crown of thy reign. 
 And what hardihood, then, 
 
 To suppose or maintain 
 That, with these in the dust. 
 
 Thy realm could remain ! 
 Ah, the cloud which o'erhangs thee 
 
 Is of darkness profound, 
 
46 IMMORTALITV TO NATURE. 
 
 And its blackness is felt 
 
 To thine uttermost bound ; 
 The flame which consumes thee 
 
 Eeduceth each part, 
 And naught can escape it, 
 
 For it burns from the heart ; 
 While the wave that o'erwhelms thee 
 
 At no point may pause, 
 Since it rolls universal 
 
 In effect to the cause. 
 And that cause transgression, 
 
 A disease of the soul 
 Undermining the pillars 
 
 Which supporteth the whole ; 
 And thus the disturbance 
 
 Giving birth to the blast 
 Which already hath levelled 
 
 And will destroy thee at last. 
 What then seems to linger, 
 
 Alike of beauty or grace, — 
 In the draping of form 
 
 Or expression of face, — 
 Comes alone of the loveliness 
 
 Fleeing outward before 
 The march of destruction 
 
 Which reigns at the core. 
 And e'en these but an instant 
 
IMMORTALITY TO NATURE. 47 
 
 In succession evade 
 The all-withering grasp 
 
 Of the pursuing shade ; 
 For blight follows guilt 
 
 Close as brightness the sun, 
 Seeing one is the source 
 
 "Whence the other doth run ; 
 And hence broad as the borders 
 
 O'er which thou hast sway- 
 Are these regions of change 
 
 And this realm of decay, 
 In the which all existent, 
 
 Both of matter and breath. 
 Animate or inanimate, 
 
 Are the subjects of Death ; 
 For this is the legacy 
 
 Bequeathed by the fall. 
 And through an acknowledged Head 
 
 Made the portion of all. 
 A beauteous culprit. 
 
 Thou art therefore condemned 
 And only awaiting, 
 
 'Mid shadows, the end ; 
 And this quickly cometh, — 
 
 Lo ! to-day is at hand, — 
 For rent are thine heavens 
 
 And distracted thy land ; 
 
48 IMMORTALITY TO NATURE. 
 
 All thy realm is discordant 
 
 With contention and strife, 
 For opposed are thy forces 
 
 And at variance thy life. 
 Thine every state hath some burden, 
 
 Each condition its woes, 
 Every form its antagonist, 
 
 And each object its foes. 
 Moth corrupteth thy treasures, 
 
 Eust corrodes and alloys, 
 The murrain infects 
 
 And the weevil destroys. 
 Mould defileth thy freshness 
 
 With the musting that sours ; 
 The mistings efface. 
 
 And the canker devours. 
 Frailty's stamped on thy strong ones, 
 
 To thy fair cometh stain. 
 Thy buds burst in tears, 
 
 And thy births are of pain. 
 Briers cling to thy blossoms. 
 
 Thistles hedge thy perfume. 
 Thorns are bound to thy fruitage, 
 
 Nettles sting 'midst thy bloom. 
 Serpents lurk at thy fountains, 
 
 Yultures nest in thy trees. 
 Monsters roam o'er thy land-realms 
 
IMMORTALITY TO NATURE. 49 
 
 And inhabit thy seas. 
 Fires burn in thy mountains, 
 
 Famines breed on thy plains, 
 Pestilence stalks in thy sunlight, 
 
 Floods descend in thy rains. 
 Snows deaden thy landscapes, 
 
 Tempests shatter thy bowers. 
 Drought withers thy verdure, 
 
 And frost kills thy flowers. 
 Night closes thy days, 
 
 Clouds follow thy morns, 
 And thou ne'er hast a calm 
 
 But 'tis succeeded by storms. 
 Thy skies are ever lurid, 
 
 All thy hopes are sin-shorn, 
 Thy sweets have grown acrid. 
 
 And thy beauties forlorn. 
 Thy very throne is subverted, 
 
 And palsied thy powers, 
 Broken down are thy bulwarks 
 
 And dismantled thy towers. 
 E'en thine house is divided 
 
 And bowed to its fall. 
 For doom is the banner 
 
 "Which floateth o'er all; 
 And however colossal 
 
 The structure may seem, 
 d 5 
 
50 IMMORTALITY TO NATURE. 
 
 At this call of destin}" 
 
 'Twill dissolve, as a dream, 
 And go back to the elements 
 
 Which erst gave it birth, 
 Leaving nothing but vacanc}' 
 
 Where now is the Earth ; 
 Likewise, also, the fabric 
 
 Which beareth th}^ name, 
 With aught that hath parcel 
 
 Or lot in the shame, — 
 All, all, e'en as mist, 
 
 Will be swept from the sky, 
 And, into original nothingness 
 
 Returning, shall die ; 
 While on through the cycles 
 
 That never were born, 
 I ever shall shine 
 
 In the splendors of morn, 
 'Mid scenes uncreated, 
 
 Which waste not nor pine, 
 In the realms wide, immortal, 
 
 Of the kingdom divine ; 
 But where pavilioned with Godhead, 
 
 In life's vestal spheres. 
 The day's beginning I know not, 
 
 Neither ending of years. 
 And e'en if this essence 
 
IMMORTALITY TO NATURE. 51 
 
 la thy confines should be, 
 Dissohition awaits it, 
 
 In connection with thee. 
 Albeit a marvellous quality 
 
 God conferred with His breath, 
 And though in Time 'tis extinguished, 
 
 Still it liveth in Death ; 
 But when thus transported 
 
 From the climes where it fell. 
 Everlasting effacement 
 
 Confronts it with Hell. 
 Then think not, O Nature! 
 
 That this realm of thine 
 In the veriest particular 
 
 Is essential to mine ; 
 Nor yet that this absolute 
 
 Ending of thee 
 "Will detract an iota 
 
 From the glories in me ; 
 For less e'en than a grass-blade 
 
 On the verdure-clad sod 
 Is thy kingdom, polluted. 
 
 In the empire of God ; 
 And when it hath vanished 
 
 From this forest profound. 
 The fall alone will be that 
 
 Of a leaf to the ground. 
 
52 IMMORTALITY TO NATURE. 
 
 And still, in thy blindness, 
 
 Thou didst claim all the zone 
 Where the sovereign Almighty 
 
 In His majesty's known, — 
 All this star-spangled fringing 
 
 Of immensity's strand, 
 With the world-studded areas 
 
 Of infinitude's land, — 
 And didst not consider 
 
 That these are on high, 
 Whilst thy place and position 
 
 Is the floor of the sk}^ — 
 An outlying barren 
 
 On eternity's page, 
 By the councils Omniscient 
 
 Devised for the stage 
 Where, in matchless unfoldings 
 
 Of a God-conceived plan. 
 Should be solved and enacted 
 
 The problem of Man ; 
 And with this effected, — 
 
 As since it hatli been, — 
 Both arena and actors 
 
 Depart from the scene ; 
 While of these orbs surrounding, 
 
 In their unchallenged might 
 Blazing onward and upward 
 
IMMORTALITY TO NATURE. 53 
 
 Through the regions of light, 
 'Tis not for the terrestrial 
 
 That more should be told, 
 Save that these are the mansions, 
 
 Celestial, of gold, 
 Whose import and purpose 
 
 God Himself will reveal 
 When the archangel's trumpet 
 
 Hath broken the seal. 
 Hence all thy dominion 
 
 Is of circumscribed girth. 
 And confined to the system. 
 
 Accursed, of Earth ; 
 And 'tis thus, O Creation ! 
 
 That 'twixt thee and me 
 Not one single vestige 
 
 Of kinship can be; 
 For while I live forever, 
 
 Thy life's but a day ; 
 While I am eternal, 
 
 Thou art but clay. 
 
IV. 
 
 Claim ot Cime* 
 
CLAIM OF TIME. 
 
 But, if not found in Nature, 
 
 Sure it is I possess 
 A royalty bearing 
 
 Thy signet's impress; 
 For o'er all the realms 
 
 Of the finite that fell, 
 To thy borders blest, — 
 
 E'en the confines of Hell, — 
 With a majesty boundless, 
 
 Enduring, sublime, 
 I reign God's vicegerent, 
 
 "With the title of Time; 
 The monarch Duration, 
 
 Creator of years. 
 Upholding the stars 
 
 And directing the spheres ; 
 Enthroned o'er existence, 
 
 Sceptred with change, 
 The sovereign lord 
 
 Of the centuries' range ; 
 Bestowing the seasons. 
 
 Guiding their flight, 
 
 57 
 
58 CLAIM OF TIME. 
 
 Controlling the conditions 
 
 Of darkness and night; 
 Bringing the dawn 
 
 Of life's morning and day, 
 And hastening the eve 
 
 Of its passing away. 
 Evolving the eras 
 
 Whence the epochs doth wend, 
 And hurrying creation 
 
 To its appointed end ; 
 In the tireless roll 
 
 Of mutations vast, 
 With noiseless steps 
 
 From ages past, 
 To my chariot wheels 
 
 With fetters fast, 
 E'en to the bounds 
 
 These region's last. 
 Here, about my throne deep strewn, 
 
 The skeletons of nations lie, 
 The wreckage grand of countless years 
 
 In dire confusion piled high ; 
 Empires 'neath my feet have sprung. 
 
 Before my sway to fall, 
 And hoary kingdoms too. 
 
 Fabrics colossal and objects small, 
 With life universal 
 
CLAIM OF TIME. 59 
 
 On this terrestrial ball, 
 Hearkening alike 
 
 To my relentless call, 
 Do share the fate 
 
 I hold for all. 
 Ah, yes ! the heights supremo 
 
 Of might and power, 
 The magnificence and grandeur 
 
 Of glory's hour, — 
 All the pomp and pride 
 
 Of this fitful clime, 
 The wreck and ruin of ages. 
 
 Have all been mine. 
 Mine e'en was the void 
 
 In its chaotic sleep, 
 And I heard the first murmurs 
 
 Which came from the deep ; 
 Saw the universe rise 
 
 From its watery bed, 
 And felt the first throbbings 
 
 Of life from the dead ; 
 Beheld the "ruler of day," 
 
 In his majestic birth, 
 And I gazed on the first 
 
 Of the "sunsets" of Earth; 
 Stood by the Almighty Architect 
 
 And Builder Divine, 
 
60 CLAIM OF TIME. 
 
 As He fashioned all nature 
 
 In beauties sublime ; 
 Saw Him stretch out the heavens 
 
 And color the sky, 
 Then kindle the fires 
 
 Of the glories on high ; 
 Watched Him mark out the bounds 
 
 For the oceans so vast, 
 And rear up the mountains 
 
 As though forever to last; 
 Marked Him give to the Earth 
 
 Its regal robes green, 
 And beheld a glorious world formed 
 
 Where the waters had been ; 
 Saw Him temper the winds 
 
 For the seasons to come, 
 Then map out the courses 
 
 For the planets to run ; 
 Observed Him give to the land, 
 
 The seas, and the air — 
 In innumerable forms — 
 
 The life that is there. 
 Then noted the grand consummation 
 
 Of creation's plan. 
 When forth in His likeness 
 
 Came immortal Man ; 
 Heard him say, then, "'Tis finished. 
 
CLAIM OF TIME. t)l 
 
 All my handiwork blest, 
 And I therefore make hallowed 
 
 This one day of rest ; 
 Draw it out from the others 
 
 Like an altar to be, 
 Where all Nature may hold 
 
 Sweet communion with me." 
 Anon, then, in Paradise, 
 
 Saw the wreck of it all ; 
 Beheld the transgression. 
 
 And witnessed the fall ; 
 Heard the dire sentence 
 
 Thundered forth from on high, 
 "Man, thy sin makes thee mortal; 
 
 Thy race now must die." 
 Then saw the guilty ones fleeing 
 
 Before the uplifted rod. 
 Exiles from Eden 
 
 And outcasts from God ; 
 Next witnessed the advent 
 
 Of the children of clay. 
 As likewise the coming 
 
 Of Death and decay; 
 Observed a foul generation 
 
 On the Earth multiply. 
 Of e'en creation repented 
 
 By the Maker on high ; 
 6 
 
62 CLAIM OF TIME. 
 
 Listened while this wicked people 
 
 All the hosts of Heaven defied, 
 Then in wrath's o'erwhelming waters 
 
 Came the issue to decide. 
 Eode with Noah o'er the floods, 
 
 Through the deluge storm and rain, 
 And gazed with him from Ararat 
 
 On a world restored again ; 
 Saw the " bow of promise" set 
 
 Athwart the clearing sky, 
 The " covenant's sign" that never more 
 
 Should Earth by water die. 
 Then on and on, in widening stream, 
 
 Beheld life's heedless flow, 
 TJumindful of the lessons taught 
 
 By sires and their overthrow ; 
 Watched the Babel-builders 
 
 Presumptuous, on Shinar's plain ; 
 Anon — confused, dispersed — 
 
 Beheld their labor vain. 
 Sat with Abraham in his tent, 
 
 And listened to his sigh 
 For that better, even heavenly country. 
 
 With its God-built city on high. 
 Saw Joseph, the victim of envy, 
 
 A bondsman and prisoner, alone ; 
 Next beheld him in royal apparel. 
 
CLAIM OF TIME. 63 
 
 And sharing with Pharaoh the throne. 
 Stood by the Nile at a season 
 
 When a babe was hidden away, 
 Whom thereafter a nation saw leading 
 
 From a tyrant's oppression and sway ; 
 Joined Israel's hegira from thraldom, — 
 
 Through years a nomadic band, — 
 By sea and waste and wilderness, 
 
 At last to Canan's land. 
 Was in all the wars of subjugation 
 
 'Neath the Judge's rule sublime ; 
 Saw the triumph, then the founding 
 
 Of an earthly power divine; 
 Hearkened to the clamor for a king. 
 
 And beheld the anointed choice; 
 Was at the temple's dedication, 
 
 And heard the wise man's voice. 
 Brought then the days of dire dissension, 
 
 Succeeding close his glorious reign. 
 Whence the tribes were rent asunder 
 
 And the kingdom cleft in twain ; 
 Marked the road thus paved to conquest 
 
 Which the bold invader found. 
 And anon beheld his legions 
 
 Zion's bulwarks marshalled round. 
 Noted then her desolation, 
 
 Saw her day of sorrow dawn, 
 
64 CLAIM OF TIME. 
 
 And beheld her children carried, 
 
 A host enslaved, to Babylon. 
 "Was through all that grinding bondage, 
 
 Saw the harps on the willows hung. 
 And, in place of song, heard wailing 
 
 From the broken captives wrung. 
 Came again in the restoration 
 
 Which made glad Judea's plain, 
 When love recrowned the " mercy-seat," 
 
 And God returned to reign ; 
 Then throughout successive epochs 
 
 Watched idolatry prevail, 
 When, the Lord their King forgetting, 
 
 All the chosen bowed to Baal. 
 Saw e'en thrice the nations chastened, 
 
 Heard the people sigh and groan. 
 Then of a Messiah coming. 
 
 Who for sin would all atone ; 
 Marked that wondrous heavenly herald 
 
 Which before the Magi rose, 
 And heard angel lips announcing 
 
 The prophetic era's close. 
 Saw the infant Jesus 
 
 In a Bethlehem manger laid ; 
 Beheld the great debt of a world's redemption 
 
 On Calvary's summit paid 
 By that fiendish act, unj)aralleled 
 
CLAIM OF TIME. 65 
 
 In the memoirs of the sky, 
 When a Saviour God the creature 
 
 Whom He'd save did crucify ; 
 Then, in waves of retribution. 
 
 Came to lay Jerusalem low 
 In the tomb of degradation. 
 
 Even as she asked to go. 
 " Be His blood e'en now upon us ; 
 
 Let it on our children rest," 
 Cried they one and all together, 
 
 And the ages doth attest 
 That e'en so it hath been ordered. 
 
 And the centuries doth fulfil, 
 For among the nations scattered 
 
 Israel, outcast, wanders still. 
 Yet not alone these Hebrew kingdoms 
 
 In their fall before my swa}' : 
 All earth's peoples, thrones, and sceptres 
 
 Have been mine as well as they ; 
 Pre-existent and succeeding, 
 
 With their compeers every one. 
 For behold! I brought to being, 
 
 Saw them strong and then undone 
 Furnished each successive station 
 
 In the fitful round of power : 
 Morning's promise, noon's fulfilment, 
 
 Gathering shades, and evening hour. 
 e 6* 
 
66 CLAIM OF TIME. 
 
 Stood for every tongue the sponsor, 
 
 Childhood upward bore to prime, 
 Then their glorious manhood guided 
 
 On to age and its decline. 
 Led the family march to statehood, 
 
 Weakly tribes to nations vast. 
 Then adown the peaks of empire 
 
 To the vale which holds the past ; 
 Marked the tides of Egypt's grandeur 
 
 Breaking high on famous strands, 
 Then anon the waves receding, 
 
 Illustrious wreck on storied sands. 
 Beheld the " sun of Persia" rising, 
 
 Dazzling, on a cloudless sky, 
 Then, beneath a fell horizon. 
 
 Observed it sink in blood and die. 
 Saw majestic Rome wax mighty, 
 
 Greece's fame grow bright, 
 Assyria's pomp and Babylon's splendor 
 
 Both attain surpassing height ; 
 Watched this wondrous Gentile world 
 
 Unexampled power and glory gain ; 
 Then, as the rolling ages passed, 
 
 Left it numbered with the slain. 
 Thus onward o'er 
 
 The course sublime 
 Of long succeeding yeai's 
 
 The victory hath been mine. 
 
CLAIM OF TIME. 67 
 
 Mine the smiles, 
 
 The sighs, the tears. 
 The fleeting days 
 
 With their hopes and fears ; 
 The mingled sorrow and joy 
 
 Which in life e'er dwells, — 
 Its christening carols 
 
 And its funeral knells ; 
 Its hours of labor, 
 
 Then its nights of relief; 
 Its moments of gladness 
 
 And its seasons of grief; 
 Its bright summer flowers, 
 
 Its seared autumn plants. 
 Its bridal marches 
 
 And its burial chants ; 
 Its morning prattles. 
 
 Its evening hymns, 
 Its lullabies 
 
 And its requiems. 
 Mine also the ocean 
 
 Of things finite below : 
 Its billowy tides, 
 
 With their ebb and their flow, 
 All the vastness and grandeur 
 
 Which Man hath e'er planned. 
 That ever was fashioned 
 
68 CLAIM OF TIME. 
 
 Or built by his hand; 
 All the forms he has moulded, 
 
 Every thread that he's si^un, 
 The empires erected, 
 
 Or the kingdoms he's won ; 
 E'en the marvel himself, 
 
 With his creations all, 
 Alike and together 
 
 Before me doth fall ; 
 For beauty fades 
 
 As I pass by, 
 And greatness finds 
 
 A place to die; 
 Eust and decay 
 
 Follow closely my flight. 
 And soon with deft fingers 
 
 Wrap brightness in night. 
 Old age and hoar hair 
 
 To the cradle I bring, 
 And I bind fast together 
 
 Life's winter and spring; 
 The Nemesis of Nature, 
 
 Fate's herald I, 
 On the highway of seconds 
 
 Whence the centuries fl}' ; 
 For of these I mould moments, 
 
 Weld the hours forming day, 
 
CLAIM OF TIME. 69 
 
 And cause the months, years, 
 
 And ages to cycle away. 
 I hold now the present, 
 
 But I own all the past, 
 And on to the end of the future 
 
 I'm hurrying fast ; 
 Sounding the march 
 
 Of generations 
 Noting the rise, the growth, 
 
 And fall of nations; 
 And though present 
 
 At creation's birth. 
 Will stand beside 
 
 The bier of Earth. 
 All have, and all below 
 
 That yet remains, — 
 The land with its verdui'e, 
 
 The mountains and plains, 
 The oceans so boundless. 
 
 The continents wide. 
 The o'erhanging skies 
 
 Where the stars doth reside; 
 Constellations and systems, 
 
 With the planets so fair. 
 These realms grand of space 
 
 And yon regions of air, — 
 All, all, in their glories 
 
70 CLAIM OF TIME. 
 
 And teeming with life, — 
 E'en creation itself, 
 
 With its harmonies rife, — 
 Alike in their order 
 
 Before me must bend, 
 And, crushed by my burdens, 
 
 Together shall end. 
 Then, from the Grave 
 
 Of mortal things, — 
 In deathless form, 
 
 With seraph's wings, — 
 I'll soar to realms 
 
 From whence I came. 
 The heights sublime 
 
 Of heavenly name; 
 And there for aye 
 
 With God and thee. 
 Will roll the cycles 
 
 Of eternity. 
 Behold thou, then. 
 
 Supreme my sway. 
 Consider whence 
 
 I'm called, I pray ; 
 And, in this presence 
 
 Yile of clay, 
 Acknowledge me 
 
 Thy child this day. 
 
V. 
 
 ImmortalitK to Chne* 
 
IMMORTALITY TO TIME. 
 
 O Time! what a hypocrite 
 
 And deceiver thou art, 
 In thus assuming position 
 
 And essaying a part 
 Which well thou dost know 
 
 Is as foreign to thee 
 As thy transitoiy existence 
 
 In its contrast with me! 
 True, thy reign is potential, 
 
 And it springeth from God, 
 Who o'er all creation — 
 
 In its latitudes broad — 
 Hath ordained thee the ruler 
 
 Both of night and the day. 
 The sign of the rising 
 
 And the fount of decay. 
 And though truly all Nature 
 
 Thus before thee must bend, 
 Just so surely thy thraldom 
 
 At this point doth end: 
 
 7 73 
 
74 IMMORTALITY TO TIME. 
 
 For lo! 'midst the matter 
 
 O'er which thou hast sway, 
 There existeth a property 
 
 Distinct from the clay; 
 And this eternal essence — 
 
 For such it doth be — 
 Is a thing indestructible, 
 
 And hence impervious to thee. 
 "What then as an absolute 
 
 Conquest appears, — 
 In the roll of the ages 
 
 Begotten of years, — 
 After all's but the rending 
 
 Of mortality's chain. 
 Preparatory to the advent 
 
 Of eternity's reign. 
 And just here the inception 
 
 Of a tale I'll unfold, 
 Which ne'er to a creature 
 
 Hath ever been told: 
 That whilst thou, in the height 
 
 Of thy much vaunted powers. 
 Hast been running away 
 
 With the moments and hours. 
 Obliterating the present 
 
 With thy consuming blight. 
 And entombing the past 
 
IMMORTALITY TO TIME. 
 
 In oblivion's night, 
 I've followed thee closer 
 
 Than ere thou hast thought, 
 And have brought all thy work 
 
 Of destruction to naught; 
 For I've watched by thy river 
 
 Since erst life had its daj^. 
 And have caught all thy wrecks 
 
 As they floated away ; 
 And to the border-land yonder, — 
 
 Far removed from the range 
 Of the rusting and fading. 
 
 Mutation and change, — 
 I've borne all thy driftings 
 
 On the crest of the wave 
 Which o'erwhelmeth corruption 
 
 In its sweep from the Grave ; 
 And there, 'midst the radiance 
 
 Of an unending day, 
 I've reproduced from the dust 
 
 And recalled from decay; 
 I've healed all thy woundings 
 
 With the stripes of thy sway, 
 Eecleansed from pollution 
 
 And refined from the clay ; 
 I've new-strung thy baitings 
 
 Made thy blind ones to see, 
 
76 IMMORTALITF TO TIME. 
 
 Eeleased from thy shackles, 
 
 And forever set free ; 
 Thy cares all I've banished, 
 
 Caused thy pinings to cease, 
 And have stifled thy sighings 
 
 With the throbbings of peace. 
 I've relumed every shading 
 
 There, regilded thy blight. 
 And thy nakedness clothed . 
 
 With the vestments of light; 
 I've appeased all thine hungerings, 
 
 Allayed all thy strife, 
 And assuaged every thirsting 
 
 With the waters of life. 
 Ay, I've repaid all thy losses 
 
 From an exhaustless store. 
 And have requited the loser, 
 
 That he wanteth no more ; 
 And thus, having reclaimed 
 
 From thy blastings and dearth, 
 Mortality's bondage 
 
 And the travail of Earth, 
 I've reinvested with the excellence 
 
 Primeval on high, 
 And the imperishable coronetted 
 
 Have restored to the sky ; 
 Taken back to tlie Father-house, 
 
IMMORTALITY TO TIME. 77 
 
 "Whence no more they'll roam 
 From the inheritance incorruptible 
 
 Of their ancestral home ; 
 But where, e'en like unto suns now, 
 
 In the day-dawn divine, 
 Their orbit's eternity, — 
 
 This wreckage of thine. 
 And of all there's none missing, 
 
 Not a fragment astray ; 
 But every waste reconstructed 
 
 Is eternal to-day ; 
 Every bud that hath blossomed, 
 
 Though it perished at morn, 
 Every herb that did rij^en 
 
 Ere its tendrils were torn. 
 Every flower that hath withered 
 
 Ere its fragrance was born, 
 Every sheaf which the scythe 
 
 Of the reaper hath shorn ; 
 Every bloom-burst which only 
 
 To the spring-time was lent. 
 Every mellowing cluster 
 
 Which the autumn hath spent, 
 Ever}^ twig Avhich of tenderness 
 
 The summer heat's bent. 
 Every bough which the winds 
 
 Of the winter hath rent; 
 7* 
 
78 IMMORTALITV TO TIME. 
 
 Every gleam of the dawning 
 
 Which scarce saw the day, 
 Every sunbeam the shadow 
 
 Hath snatched from its play, 
 Every clear sky the mistings 
 
 Hath cast o'er with gray. 
 Every glow that hath wasted 
 
 In the gloamings away; 
 Every sowing to ease 
 
 That the harvests withheld, 
 Every planting to pleasure 
 
 That the mildews dispelled, 
 Every calm which the roar 
 
 Of the hurricane's knelled. 
 Every tower which the force 
 
 Of the tempest hath felled ; 
 Every treasure the shiftings 
 
 Hath caused to depart, 
 Every tie that the rendings 
 
 Hath sundered apart. 
 Every joy which despair 
 
 Hath transfixed with its dart, 
 Every idol bereavement 
 
 Hath stole from the heart ; 
 Every fond expectation 
 
 That's been buried in tears, 
 Every hallowed affection 
 
IMMORTALITY TO TIME. 79 
 
 Which recollection reveres, 
 Every loved form that's vanished 
 
 And no longer appears, 
 Every hope, pride, and trust 
 
 That hath flown with the years, — 
 All, all in the realms 
 
 Of blessedness fair. 
 Full-faced in the sheen 
 
 Of the heavenl}^ glare, 
 'Midst the waftings ineffable 
 
 Of its life-giving air, — 
 All, renewed and immortalized, 
 
 Are emparadised there, 
 Where thy corroding touch 
 
 Can ne'er come with its stain, 
 Nor the burden of days 
 
 Oppress them again ; 
 But where unwithering freshness 
 
 Crowns the great and the small. 
 And perpetual 3'outh 
 
 Is the portion of all ; 
 Where the skin never furrows. 
 
 Nor the face groweth wan, 
 But the dews of the daybreak 
 
 Endureth at dawn ; 
 Where the voice never quavers, 
 
 Nor the hair turneth gray, 
 
80 IMMORTALITY TO TIME. 
 
 But the full flush of morning 
 
 At noontide doth stay. 
 Where limbs never totter, 
 
 Nor dim grows the qjq, 
 But perennial the bloom 
 
 Of the gardens on high ; 
 Where the sense never faileth, 
 
 Nor the forces decline, 
 But everlasting the spring 
 
 Of that celestial clime; 
 Where the past, all encycled, 
 
 Awaits th}^ few years to come, 
 Up to life's coronation. 
 
 When, enthroned, they'll be one ; 
 And then throughout eternity 
 
 Trimphantly sing as they shine, 
 " Behold ; once we were wrecks 
 
 On the current of Time; 
 Once we were drift 
 
 Borne away by its tide, 
 JSTow, on the hill-tops empyrean. 
 
 For aye we reside ; 
 Once we were floatage 
 
 Tossed about o'er its main. 
 But ' kings unto God,' now. 
 
 Forever we reign, — 
 Eeiixn e'en in the flesh 
 
IMMORTALITY TO TIME. 81 
 
 Which ex'stwhile enslaved, 
 And our crown is rejoicing 
 
 That now we ai"c saved : 
 Saved from the brightness 
 
 In whose lustre was shade, 
 Saved from the blossomings 
 
 That bloomed but to fade, 
 Saved from the foliage 
 
 That in its glory was scattered. 
 Saved from the bowers 
 
 Only reared to be shattered ; 
 Saved from the buddings 
 
 Which gave promise for naught, 
 Saved from the fruitage 
 
 That ripened to rot. 
 Saved from the treasures 
 
 That were taken when given, 
 Saved from the ties 
 
 Only formed to be riven ; 
 Saved from the friendships 
 
 Encompassed by foes, 
 Saved from the blessings 
 
 Encumbered with woes, 
 Saved from the hopes 
 
 Interwoven with fears, 
 Saved from the mirth 
 
 Intermingled with tears ; 
 
 / 
 
82 IMMORTALITY TO TIME. 
 
 Saved from the pleasures 
 
 Surcharged with pain, 
 Saved from the sunlight 
 
 Succeeded by rain, 
 Saved from the murkingji, 
 
 The heat, cold, and blast. 
 Which thronged the brief day 
 
 Of the finite that's passed ; 
 Saved from the illusions. 
 
 Contradictions, and strife 
 Of Earth's fated seasons 
 
 And eras of life, 
 Saved from mortality 
 
 With its trappings of gloom, 
 O'er dissolution victorious, 
 
 And redeemed from the tomb ; 
 For all the ages eternal, 
 
 O departed Time, 
 We're glorified beams 
 
 In the rising divine. 
 And, like the stars of the morning. 
 
 In clusters sublime 
 On the brow of infinitude 
 
 Thy ransomed we shine." 
 What then, O marauder 
 
 Of frailty below, 
 But a triumphal car 
 
IMMORTALITY TO TIME. 83 
 
 Is thine engulfing flow? 
 And what else but paeans 
 
 The crush of thy roll, 
 When these are the victims 
 
 And this is the goal? 
 Or what more the sischinffs 
 
 And roar of thy main, 
 Save the strainings and breakings 
 
 Of the earth-mooring chain ? 
 And what then the fui'ies 
 
 Which o'er it doth fl}', 
 But the fair winds that wafteth 
 
 The bark to the sky? 
 A mysterj", truly ; 
 
 Still, its import is seen 
 All thy throbbings and surges 
 
 And billows between; 
 For doth the moments not pass 
 
 Ere the day can appear? 
 And is not the flight 
 
 Of the seasons the j'ear? 
 And must not e'en these 
 
 In turn have an end 
 Ei*e the epochs colossal 
 
 In their majesty wend ? 
 And like, too, such periods 
 
 Of duration grand, 
 
84 IMMORTALITF TO TIME. 
 
 Must they all not have gone 
 
 Ere the cycle's at hand? 
 How wondrously plain, then, 
 
 As beyond this we see 
 That thy sub-astral sway 
 
 Is but the pi-elude to me ! 
 Only the rehearsal, 
 
 In a perfunctory age, 
 For the drama of life 
 
 On Eternity's stage; 
 A period of probation 
 
 Granted by love, 
 To fit and prepare 
 
 For endless being above ; 
 A season of tutelage, 
 
 Designed but to train 
 The immortal soul 
 
 For its eternal reign. 
 And since this the purpose 
 
 Divine in thy birth. 
 Alike with the mission 
 
 Thou must perish with Earth, 
 And be only remembered. 
 
 In the future to come, 
 As the course where the crown 
 
 Of existence was won. 
 
VI. 
 
SUIT OF DEATH. 
 
 Though I've heard thee disown 
 
 Both Nature and Time, 
 I'm still bold to speak, 
 
 For I know I am thine. 
 Since oft-time, when the portal I've opened 
 
 Some earth-worm to bring, 
 I've heard royal footsteps 
 
 And felt the stroke of thy wing ; 
 While anon from the glowing, 
 
 As the gates back I've swung, 
 Wild pseans of triumph 
 
 Thou to me hast sung. 
 But thou mayest forget. 
 
 So I'll recall in a breath : 
 I'm the great "King of Terrors," 
 
 Though Earth calls me Death; 
 But no less a sovereignty, 
 
 By all of Heaven revered, — 
 E'en the same, as in Time 
 
 And by Hell I am feared. 
 
 87 
 
SUI7' OF DEATH. 
 
 And while sure all that's needed, 
 
 In thy presence fair 
 To establish my claim, 
 
 Is this name M'hich I bear, 
 Still, before the pretensions 
 
 Of this craven band, 
 Who, to say but the least, 
 
 Owe their all to mine hand. 
 E'en their very existence 
 
 Deriving from me, 
 Or else by my sufferance 
 
 Permitted to be, 
 And yet now so majestic 
 
 In this borrowed renown, 
 As to seek to lay hold 
 
 Both of sceptre and crown, 
 I deem it but due 
 
 To my absolute state, 
 M}^ prowess so grand 
 
 Of Omnipotence great, 
 Here, e'en at thy side. 
 To publish my reign, 
 And my suzerain rights 
 
 Under God to maintain. 
 Not, then, in the train 
 
 Of a weak, servile horde: 
 I've come to account 
 
SUIT OF DEATH. 89 
 
 As a prince to his Lord. 
 List, then, I pray thee, 
 
 While a king deigns to say 
 What glorious trophies 
 
 Are strewn 'long his way. 
 Mine is a thi'one that's builded 
 
 On the wreck of beauty's bowers; 
 A banner first that floated 
 
 O'er Love's dismantled towers; 
 A sceptre that was given 
 
 In Life's accouchement room ; 
 A sway that, all the ages long, 
 
 Commenced 'mid Eden's bloom ; 
 For Earth had yet its morning, 
 
 And Man his natal day. 
 While all of Time was yet sublime, 
 
 In purity's array, 
 A spotless sun still ruled the day 
 
 With floods of shadeless light, 
 While moon and stars, in pristine powers, 
 
 Shed glories on the night ; 
 The balmy airs of innocence 
 
 Still lulled the world to sleep. 
 For peace alone was on the throne. 
 
 And stormless was the deep. 
 Immortal sweets yet thronged the scene 
 
 And filled the languid hour; 
 8* 
 
90 SUIT OF DEATH. 
 
 A heavenly breath which knew no Death 
 
 Still claimed each fadeless flower; 
 The desert yet had not been shorn 
 
 Of the lily and the rose, 
 And e'en the solitary jDlace had grace 
 
 In plenitude's repose. 
 The meekly lamb with lion bold 
 
 Yet gambolled undismayed, 
 And the suckling, then, about the den 
 
 Of the cockatrice still plaj-ed ; 
 The universe was still in tune 
 
 To hymn its Maker's praise. 
 And yet the mounts and ocean founts 
 
 "Were redolent of lays. 
 E'en the spheres were yet a-riuging 
 
 With the angel shouts on high, 
 At creation's morn, of a kingdom born 
 
 To the empire of the sk}- ; 
 E'en yet the benediction 
 
 Was fresh on the lips Divine, — 
 That Omnipotent word which infinitude heard, 
 
 "Blest" are the things of Time; 
 When lo ! the prospect changeth, 
 
 Transgression crcepeth in. 
 And God Almighty crowneth me 
 
 The punishment for sin ; 
 Then a shudder swept immensity, 
 
SUIT OF DEATH. 91 
 
 And ran through Nature's range, 
 While all creation stood appalled 
 
 Before the awful change 
 Wrought by my august presence 
 
 In this its sovereign birth, 
 Which wide proclaimed mortality, 
 
 And tolled the doom of Earth ; 
 For destruction then, in fiendish might, 
 
 Spread blight o'er all the plain. 
 And in pei*fection's royal seat 
 
 Decay commenced to reign. 
 The sun took on a sickly glare. 
 
 The moon's light then did pale. 
 And all the wonders of the skies 
 
 Were hidden by the veil 
 Which cast o'er all the world so fair 
 
 A dark and venomed shade, 
 Which wrapt around in moral gloom 
 
 Each couch for virtue made. 
 Then Time, of brightness all despoiled. 
 
 Embarked on a dismal sway, 
 With nothing left but moments drear 
 
 To drag o'er a waste away; 
 The elements broke their moorings, then, 
 
 To the haven's calm on high. 
 And the lightnings first began to flash. 
 
 With thunders from the skj'. 
 
92 ^UIT OF DEATH. 
 
 E'en the gentle breeze ferocious grew, 
 
 While the zephyrs of the leas, 
 Aroused to fury, swept the strand 
 
 And lashed to foam the seas; 
 Then the flowers began to wither, 
 
 And the leaves commenced to fall, 
 For autumn came to shroud the spring, 
 
 With winter for its pall. 
 Base passion, then, by guilt released 
 
 From dungeons foul of Hell, 
 The vanguard of a host depraved. 
 
 Sought out the heart to dwell ; 
 Malice then inflamed the breast, 
 
 And vengeance fired the brain, 
 While these devouring monsters gave 
 
 To land, the air, and main. 
 The adder then began to sting. 
 
 The wild beast sought his prey, 
 And e'en the hand of sovereign prince 
 
 In wrath was raised to slay ; 
 Then I appeared in Paradise, 
 
 And, ere the morn had fled, 
 Its glens and groves primeval 
 
 Were sepulchres of the dead. 
 And thus commenced that conquest grand 
 
 Which, like a mighty wave. 
 Hath ever since through Nature's realms 
 
SUIT OF DEATH. 93 
 
 Swept matter to the Grave. 
 But come, behold my triumphs, 
 
 See the wonders of my reign, 
 With the crowns of glory wrested 
 
 From the brow of being slain ; 
 View life's gorgeous, glittering drama, 
 
 In splendors set for eveiy age, 
 And then, behold the desolation 
 
 "Which I've wrought upon the stage; 
 Note humanitj^'s wondrous pageant, 
 
 All the line of centuries down. 
 And then look out upon the remnant 
 
 Which I've left of Earth's renown ; 
 Gaze upon a king's triumphal journey 
 
 From Eden to the present day 
 And tell me, Where's the vastness, kingdoms now 
 
 Which erst resplendent lined the way ? 
 Where is the Mede and Persian, 
 
 And that of Assyria, too ; 
 The Chaldean grand and Saracen, 
 
 With the God-wrought of the Jew? 
 Where now's the Caesar's empire, 
 
 Which dominated the world awhile, 
 As well the Pharaoh dynasty 
 
 That flourished on the Nile? 
 And where, too, now is Carthage, 
 
 With Tyre and Ascalon, 
 
94 SUIT OF DEATH. 
 
 Busy Thebes, imperial Eome, 
 
 Nineveh, and Babj-lon ? 
 "Where, also, to-day is Jerusalem, 
 
 By the presence blest Divine, 
 And where that gorgeous Ephesus 
 
 That held Diana's shrine? 
 Where, also, is gentle Athens, 
 
 The home of the cultured brave, 
 Damascus in its Syrian garden, 
 
 And Troy by the ocean's wave? 
 Where, too, are the lesser splendors 
 
 Which thronged these marvels round. 
 And where to-day can Perga 
 
 And Philippi be found? 
 And where, too, now are the nations 
 
 O'er which all these held swa}-. 
 And where the pomp and prowess 
 That crowned their glorjj-'s day? 
 Where alone are the mighty epochs 
 
 Which possessed these wonders vast. 
 And where e'en the JSTecropolis 
 
 Of this stupendous past? 
 Once it was, aye, and dazzled 
 
 With a brilliancy sublime 
 That shone forth as the noonday 
 From the zenith of its prime; 
 For it filled the Earth with wisdom, 
 
SUIT OF DEATH. 95 
 
 E'en called the stars by name, 
 And drew a world entranced around 
 
 The pinnacle of its fame. 
 It made a captive of the seas, 
 It chained the fleeting hour, 
 And held creation in vassalage 
 
 In the acme of its power; 
 And yet 't has vanished like a dream 
 
 This matchless long ago. 
 And scarce a vestige doth remain 
 
 To tell of its overthrow. 
 Gone, all gone, and forever, 
 
 With the times that gave it birth, 
 And e'en its very sepulchre 
 
 Is now unknown to Earth ; 
 But sure, sure, 'tis no enigma, 
 
 This ruin all to thee. 
 Since even Man's historian 
 
 Accordeth it to me. 
 Ah, yes, crowns crumble in my grasp; 
 
 Before my all-powerful sway 
 Empire sinks within a night. 
 
 And kingdoms perish in a day; 
 The antediluvian world 
 
 I destroyed at a stroke. 
 And a breath from my nostrils 
 The Assyrian power broke. 
 
96 SUIT OF DEATH. 
 
 I swept 'long the Jordan 
 
 In a fiery rain, 
 And in a moment wiped out 
 
 Both the prides of its plain ; 
 Herculaneum and Pompeii 
 
 I entombed on the lea, 
 And Tyrus I wrecked 
 
 With the tides of the sea. 
 To Alexandria I came, 
 
 In the gorgon of war, 
 The same unto Corinth, 
 
 And likewise to Zoar. 
 The world's haughty mistress 
 
 I smote with decay, 
 And with dry-rot I wasted 
 
 Her compeers away. 
 All the grandeur of Antioch 
 
 I've left in a mound. 
 And Baalbec colossal 
 
 I razed to the ground. 
 To say naught of the pi'odigics 
 
 I've subverted in wrath, 
 Nor yet e'en of Chorazin, 
 
 Csesarea, and Gath ; 
 While to all the rest, mighty, 
 
 I've given an end so profound 
 That not a single trace of them, 
 
SUIT OF DEATH. 97 
 
 Now or hereafter, will ever be found ; 
 E'en their age, with its chronicles 
 
 Of the events of old, 
 Their power with its pillars, 
 
 I've consigned to the mould ; 
 AH that erst was created 
 
 My hand hath undone, 
 And yet e'en the system 
 
 I'm called to o'ercome ; 
 And hence from thy presence. 
 
 With my banner unfurled, 
 I go forth to the conquest 
 
 Of what is left of the world, — 
 Go forth as aforetime, 
 
 Girt about with the sword, 
 A destroj'er decreed 
 
 And ordained of the Lord. 
 But here's my commission ; see, it reads, 
 
 That come to all I must. 
 That back to Earth all earth must go, 
 
 While dust returns to dust ; 
 That from these teeming fields 
 
 Of being so green, — 
 Which the husbandman sowed. 
 
 But where an enemy's been, — 
 Alike with fruitfulness crowned 
 
 And barren spots seamed, 
 9 9 
 
98 SUIT OF DEATH. 
 
 Both the wheat and the tares 
 
 Must all be gleaned ; 
 Then, the summer being ended 
 
 And the harvest-time i:)a8sed, 
 The floors will be garnished 
 
 And the sheaves shall be thrashed, 
 The grain taken home 
 
 To life's garners on high. 
 But all refuse, with the stubble. 
 
 Must eternally die. 
 This I received in Eden, 
 
 Just at the time of the fall, — 
 Eeceived it with God-given instructions 
 
 To execute it on all; 
 And since then, as thou knowest. 
 
 Ever down through the years 
 I've swathed creation in mourning 
 
 And drenched the world with tears ; 
 Eound every fireside 
 
 I've scattered my dearth, 
 And have successively plundered 
 
 The households of Earth, 
 From Adams to Abrahams, 
 
 Then on to Sauls, 
 Of the Hebrews and Komans, 
 
 The Greeks and the Gauls, — 
 Every family and people. 
 
SUIT OF DEATH. 99 
 
 Of whatever name, 
 That ever had being, 
 
 The record's the same : 
 They came as the flowing. 
 
 They went out like the tide, 
 They were and they are not, 
 
 They lived and they died. 
 This is the simple epitaph 
 
 Of all existence o'er, 
 And the same will yet be written 
 
 Of that unborn before. 
 E'en of the bustling millions 
 
 That in the present dwell, 
 Who now contend upon the fields 
 
 Where sires and fathers fell ; 
 Who sojourn 'midst their ruins, 
 
 And in their footsteps tread 
 The narrow sj)an 'twixt coming life 
 
 And the departed dead ; 
 For like the flowerets, so are these : 
 
 They bloom and fade away 
 That others, after, may succeed 
 
 And share the same decaj- ; 
 While all of mortal kind to be 
 
 In manner like shall fall, 
 For verily my dominion's scope 
 
 Includes creation all. 
 
100 SUIT OF DEATH. 
 
 Ah, yes! wind, flood, and flame, 
 
 Pestilence, famine, and war, 
 With every force e'en of Nature, 
 
 My agencies are ; 
 And with these I know nothing 
 
 Of either places or Time, 
 For mine are all seasons, 
 
 And I own every clime. 
 And 'tis the same with life's stations, 
 
 Whether high-born or low, 
 For alike to the palace 
 
 And the hovel I go, 
 Seeking together the rich and the poor, 
 
 Youth's bloom and the gray, 
 Manhood's full prime 
 
 And the babe of a day; 
 Bowing the crowned head. 
 
 The priest, sage, and brave. 
 Alike with the peasant. 
 
 Serf, beggar, and slave ; 
 For to all classes and conditions 
 
 That exist 'neath the sun, 
 Inevitably and resistlessly 
 
 My warrant doth run. 
 E'en at being's first dawning, 
 
 Behold, I am near, 
 And on all of its by-ways 
 
SUIT OF DEATH. 101 
 
 I doth ever appear: 
 To the sleeper at night 
 
 And the strong in the day, 
 To the business man at his desk 
 
 And the child at its play, 
 To the rough-handed laborer. 
 
 Toiling hard for his bread. 
 And fortune's heir, pampered, 
 
 Who without exertion is fed ; 
 To the youth in life's morn, 
 
 With no world-cares as yet, 
 And the old wrinkled pilgrim 
 
 Whose earth-sun's most set, 
 To the light-hearted husbandman, 
 
 Hopefully tilling the soil. 
 And the captive in thraldom. 
 
 Broken down by his toil ; 
 To the captains of armies 
 
 And the heroes of war. 
 To all that are saved 
 
 From the battle-field's gore. 
 To the meek and the mighty. 
 
 The small and the great. 
 To the walks of the lowly 
 
 And the princely estate ; 
 To the thronged city's street 
 
 And the crowd every one, 
 9* 
 
102 ^UIT OF DEATH. 
 
 Like the blight to the verdure, 
 
 In some way I come : 
 Perhaps in the sunshine, 
 
 But oft in the rain, 
 With scarcely a ripple, 
 
 Or in tempests of pain ; 
 Perchance in the spring-time, 
 
 Full as like with the snows. 
 When the summer is green. 
 
 Or the autumn wind blows. 
 Maybe in the vapors of morn, 
 
 Or the cool evening air ; 
 I've lurked even in flowers. 
 
 And been found in a hair ; 
 But ever, j^ea, always, 
 
 Like the storm in its might, 
 As the flash of the lightning. 
 
 Or a thief in the night. 
 Besides, I've ten thousand forms 
 
 Which I assume every day. 
 And each one of these 
 
 Bears its victims away; 
 But however familiar 
 
 I thus grow to be, 
 Mankind hath no terror 
 
 That compareth to me. 
 And hence whei'ever I find them, 
 
SUIT OF DEATH. 103 
 
 Or howe'er I come, 
 Dismay dire precedeth, 
 
 While despair doth outrun ; 
 For in anguish they greet me, 
 
 And pleadingly sigh, 
 Cling wildly to life, 
 
 And panic-stricken they die. 
 E'en my very existence 
 
 Inspireth with fear, 
 For none knoweth to whom 
 
 Or when next I'll appear; 
 And in all pursuits of the finite, 
 
 On life's every way, 
 These impenetrable shadows 
 
 Eender lurid the day. 
 Paleness steals to the cheek 
 
 Of the beauty so gay, 
 At a single allusion 
 
 To the coming decay ; 
 Clouds darken the brow 
 
 Of e'en the mighty and brave, 
 At the bare recollection 
 
 They're en route to the Grave, 
 Tremors seize on the noble, 
 
 In his high estate proud, 
 Before one obtruding thought 
 
 Of a coffin and shroud ; 
 
104 SUIT OF DEATH. 
 
 While ghastly forebodings 
 
 Fill the heart of the king, 
 Born of an instant's conjecture 
 
 Of what the morrow may bring. 
 The waltz becomes listless, 
 
 Alarm fills the hall, 
 For a whisper goes round 
 
 That I may dance at the ball ; 
 A shade presides at the banquet, 
 
 Its mirth all hath ceased, 
 For anon comes the dread 
 
 Lest I join in the feast. 
 In every scene of enjoyment 
 
 There's a trill in the song, 
 Based on a vague apprehension. 
 
 Perchance, that I'm in the throng; 
 At all festive gatherings 
 
 Distrust mingles with glee. 
 And all account the uncertainty 
 
 Attaching to me; 
 While on every occasion 
 
 Of might or beauty's array, 
 'Tis the prayer of the multitude 
 
 That I stay away ; 
 'Tis the ever-present solicitude 
 
 Alike of human homes all. 
 Lest in the train of the social 
 
SUIT OF DEATH. 105 
 
 I should ventui'e to call ; 
 And a household petition 
 
 From castle to hut, 
 That 'gainst me, the destroyer, 
 
 Long the door ma}' be shut. 
 E'en to workshop and office 
 
 These terrors intrude, 
 And their every plan and design 
 
 Doth the phantom include. 
 " I give pledge," saith the mortal, 
 
 "That thus it shall be, 
 Provided naught interfere : 
 
 That the morning we see." 
 " This and that I'll accomplish," 
 
 Another doth say, 
 "In case I'm vouchsafed 
 
 The requisite day." 
 " To go there I'm determined," 
 
 Still another makes known, 
 "If, however, perchance, 
 
 The season's my own." 
 But in all — through all — 
 
 A proviso must be; 
 For thus alone Time is reckoned 
 
 On Man's chances with me. 
 And well taken these fears. 
 
 Good grounds for this dread, 
 
106 SUIT OF DEATH. 
 
 For oft one moment's planning 
 
 Is the next moment's dead ; 
 Oft I follow the schemer, 
 
 Strong in hope, to his bed, 
 But ere the morn of the promise 
 
 His life-day hath fled. 
 At the scene of construction 
 
 Oft the builder I meet, 
 And the day is not given 
 
 In which he sees it complete ; 
 While ere the hour of departure 
 
 For the tourist hath come, 
 I pay a chance visit, 
 
 And lo ! his journeys are done. 
 And not a second's ticked off 
 
 On the dial of Time, 
 But tenfold I record 
 
 These incursions of mine; 
 Not a single sun riseth 
 
 From the gates of the morn, 
 But sees a myriad new graves 
 
 Ere another is born ; 
 While, as the years roll away 
 
 And each epoch hath flown, 
 My conquests grow numberless. 
 
 Then, as generations they're known ; 
 And soon, soon the moment cometh 
 
SUIT OF DEATH. 107 
 
 When the last of life to be — 
 Like this, its hapless ancestry — 
 
 Will quit these scenes through me. 
 But not alone my appearing, 
 
 Whence all of Earth disappears ; 
 'Tis what lies beyond 
 
 That the mortal most fears ; 
 'Tis the future uncertain, 
 
 Of which I am the door, 
 That all through his journey 
 
 Is the spectre before ; 
 'Tis the dark realm I open. 
 
 When the world fades from sight, 
 With its ghastly surroundings, — 
 
 That's the ghoul of his night : 
 That hereafter mysterious 
 
 Into which I'm the way, 
 With its untried realities, — 
 
 That's the ghost of his day ; 
 A veritable eternity, 
 
 Of which Time hath no chart, 
 That only my coming 
 
 Will reveal to his heart. 
 Eternal cycles of being 
 
 His ever}^ sense must endure, 
 But in what state or condition 
 
 Nothing here to assure; 
 
108 SUIT OF DEATH. 
 
 That dread region infinite 
 
 "Which no ray relieves, 
 And hence peopled with horrors 
 
 As his fancy conceives. 
 Ah ! this is the frenzy 
 
 Of ominous roll, 
 And thus I lead captive 
 
 Both body and soul; 
 But this all I heed not, 
 
 My work must be done. 
 And that shall go on 
 
 Till it blots out the sun ; 
 Then o'er creation triumphant, 
 
 In my majesty fell, 
 I'll reign on forever, 
 
 Death eternal, in Hell. 
 Hence with this glorious past 
 
 And grand future to come, 
 If thou e'er hadst a kinsman, 
 
 I am that one; 
 For my sway in all things 
 
 Is coequal with thine 
 O'er the two grand divisions 
 
 Of the kingdom divine: 
 One of the glowing, 
 
 The other of blight ; 
 Thine of the rising. 
 
SUIT OF DEATH. 109 
 
 Mine of the night ; 
 The heights of the heavens 
 
 In their glory of thee, 
 With the depths of despair 
 
 In subjection to me. 
 In regal alliance 
 
 I'm therefore thy peer, — 
 Thou the crown of God's love, 
 
 I His sceptre of fear. 
 
 10 
 
VII. 
 
 Jmmortalitg to Mmtb. 
 
IMMORTALITY TO DEATH. 
 
 O Death, of life 
 
 Supreme the shade, 
 The penalty for sin 
 
 By Godhead laid 
 On existence all 
 
 Of finite birth. 
 That, transgressing, fell 
 
 With Man on Earth, 
 And verily, as such. 
 
 Divinely crowned 
 The autocrat of being 
 
 "Within this bound, 
 Whose sovereign power 
 
 E'en Time defies, 
 And at whose feet 
 
 All Nature dies, 
 'Tis not in me 
 
 To rob thy state, 
 Of resistless sway 
 
 And trophies great, 
 
 10* 113 
 
114 IMMORTALITY TO DEATH. 
 
 But simply 'midst 
 
 Thy reign so fell, 
 The hidden glories 
 
 Of thy rule to tell ; 
 For a seraph e'en 
 
 Thy boast to hear 
 Of an absolutism 
 
 Maintained through fear, 
 Would sure conclude 
 
 Some hellish art 
 Had formed thee 
 
 For a baser part, 
 And bid thee roam 
 
 Creation broad, 
 The destructive engine 
 
 Of a monster God, 
 Whose highest aim 
 
 And ehiefest joy 
 Was to create 
 
 And then destroy; 
 When in very truth 
 
 Thy force malign 
 Is mercy manifest 
 
 In love Divine, 
 Which, moved with compassion 
 
 At the fall, 
 Decreed through thee 
 
IMMORTALITY TO DEATH. 115 
 
 Complete recall; 
 And even thus 
 
 Hath loosed guilt's chain, 
 And brought the famished 
 
 To the fount again, 
 Of whose healing waters. 
 
 Welling high. 
 They who drink 
 
 Shall never die, 
 But, yielding up 
 
 All mortal strife. 
 In thy embrace 
 
 Escape to life, 
 And in the freedom 
 
 Blest I give. 
 On the altitudes eternal 
 
 Begin to live ; 
 For that below. 
 
 Existence called. 
 In fleshen cells 
 
 Securely walled, 
 Tugging ever 
 
 At the chain, 
 Beating 'gainst 
 
 The bars in vain, 
 Sighing e'er 
 
 At prison doors, 
 
116 IMMORTALITY TO DEATH. 
 
 Prostrate prone 
 
 On dungeon floors, 
 Bleeding, bruised 
 
 By slaver's stroke, 
 And crushed beneath 
 
 The bondsman's yoke, 
 Doth only bear 
 
 The princely name; 
 'Tis but the spark, 
 
 I am the flame. 
 And yet the heritage 
 
 Of the skies 
 Bids this ember 
 
 To its birthright rise; 
 But in the call 
 
 It must be free 
 To answer God 
 
 And destiny. 
 And hence the rescript 
 
 And decree 
 Which forms and vests 
 
 The work in thee. 
 Not, then, O Death, 
 
 With tyrant's frown. 
 Oppressor's sceptre, 
 
 Or the despot's crown ; 
 Not with the spoiler's 
 
IMMORTALITY TO DEATH. 117 
 
 Torch and spear, 
 Nor conquest's fetters 
 
 Forged of fear, 
 Time's liapless victim 
 
 Fast to bind 
 Eternity's chariot, 
 
 A slave behind ; 
 Not with destruction's 
 
 Wasting might, 
 Canopied round 
 
 With clouds of night; 
 Nor yet with trumpet 
 
 Blast of doom, 
 In spectral train 
 
 Of mortal gloom, 
 With fury's fangs 
 
 And horror's maw, 
 To full avenge 
 
 The broken law; 
 But as a courier 
 
 Of the skies, 
 Who with a blessed 
 
 Message flies 
 Forth the imperial 
 
 Court above. 
 On the wings 
 
 Of rescuing love, 
 
118 IMMORTALITY TO DEATH. 
 
 In the sovereign 
 
 Parent's name, 
 To the child 
 
 Immured in shame, 
 From the whirlwind 
 
 And the wave 
 The heir immortal, 
 
 Eedeemed, to save. 
 O harbinger royal 
 
 Of the soul's release. 
 Thy kingly mission 
 
 To the Earth is peace, — 
 Perfect, satisfying. 
 
 Abiding peace, — 
 "Within whose fold 
 
 All conflicts cease. 
 Such peace these realms 
 
 Hath never known 
 E'en 'midst the bowers 
 
 Of Eden flown; 
 That peace which yieldeth 
 
 Costlier things 
 Than e'er the train 
 
 Of conqueror brings. 
 Life peace, which breathes 
 
 Of an existence hence, 
 And speaks of Heaven 
 
IMMORTALITY TO DEATH 119 
 
 And recompense; 
 Tells of crowns 
 
 For crosses, 
 Of infinite gains 
 
 For finite losses ; 
 To the disconsolate 
 
 Murmurs, "Blest," 
 Gently whispers 
 
 To the weary, " Eest ;" 
 To the wanderer says, 
 
 " No more alone ; 
 For behold, I call thee, 
 
 Exile, home." 
 And is liberty, then. 
 
 So great a bond 
 That e'en the slave 
 
 Doth dread her wand? 
 Is gloom so precious 
 
 To the sight, 
 The blind, afi'righted, 
 
 Flee the light? 
 Nor yet of pain : 
 
 Is it so sweet 
 The tortured fear 
 
 Eelief to meet ? 
 Or hath trial sore 
 
 So much to charm 
 
120 IMMORTALITY TO DEATH. 
 
 That release but comes 
 
 In dire alarm? 
 Or can it be 
 
 The banished groan 
 When summoned back 
 
 To land and throne ? 
 Ah, Death! a mystery dark 
 
 May thee surround, 
 But "Terrors' King" 
 
 Must yet be crowned, 
 And nothing but 
 
 A trammelled mind, 
 In its dismal 
 
 Earth-house blind, 
 Where the mills 
 
 Of fancy grind, 
 And its spectres 
 
 Lodgement find, 
 Could e'er have builded 
 
 Thus for Time 
 So weird a shape 
 
 From the sublime. 
 But since, in fact. 
 
 This error's sown, 
 It is but meet 
 
 The truth be known ; 
 Hence, of this exit 
 
IMMORTALITY TO DEATH. 121 
 
 From below, 
 Whence life's upward 
 
 Currents flow, — 
 Whether in zephyr 
 
 Whispers low, 
 In the howling 
 
 Tempest's blow. 
 Sudden blast 
 
 Or waftings slow, — 
 'Tis a royal way 
 
 These earthlings go. 
 Ay, the only bliss 
 
 Beneath the sky — 
 If Man but knew — 
 
 Is that to die, 
 And did he see 
 
 As I could tell, 
 Each moment here 
 
 Would be a hell ; 
 But truths like these 
 
 Are under seal, 
 And this the utmost 
 
 I may reveal. 
 Suffice it, then, 
 
 This statement plain: 
 For mortal things 
 
 " To die is gain." 
 11 
 
122 IMMORTALITY TO DEATH. 
 
 All Nature this 
 
 Doth understand, 
 And, with a gorgeous, 
 
 Lavish hand, 
 Throughout all climes, 
 
 The air, and sea, 
 E'en like a bride, 
 
 Adorns for thee. 
 The sun reserves 
 
 His loveliest ray 
 To gild the bier 
 
 Of passing day. 
 The moon her fulness 
 
 Doth attain. 
 But as a shroud 
 
 In which to wane, 
 And, like the planets. 
 
 So they burn. 
 Ever brightest 
 
 At their orbits' turn ; 
 The spring puts on 
 
 Its best attire 
 To grace the hour 
 
 It will expire ; 
 While summer fair 
 
 Her grandest sheen 
 In joj'- assumes 
 
IMMORTALITY TO DEATH. 121 
 
 To be thy queen ; 
 And so tl\e autumn, 
 
 Winter, year, 
 Fleeting age 
 
 And rolling sphere, — 
 All worn and wearied 
 
 By the past, — 
 Eesplendent greet 
 
 Their king at last. 
 And if to these 
 
 Of Earth supine. 
 Destined to run 
 
 Their course in Time, 
 A hand which decks 
 
 With glory o'er, 
 What tongue may tell 
 
 For Man the store? 
 For lo ! to him 
 
 Thy presence brings. 
 Though all unseen, 
 
 A spirit's wings, 
 With which he flees 
 
 The jailer clay, 
 As well the realms 
 
 Of carnal sway. 
 Mounts expectant 
 
 To the skies, 
 
124 IMMORTALITY TO DEATH. 
 
 Where the peaks 
 
 Of prospect rise, 
 And, from creation's 
 
 Topmost crest, 
 Surveys his Heaven 
 
 And soars to rest. 
 And 'tis thus, O Death, 
 
 The shades that spring 
 From 'neath thy feet 
 
 Have lost their sting; 
 Thy prowess, however, 
 
 No one may deny, 
 Though only a servant 
 
 Traversing the sky; 
 And to life's latest hour, 
 
 In the Earth-land below, 
 Awe mingled with glory 
 
 About thee shall glow. 
 But talk not of kinship ; 
 
 That ne'er could be, 
 Since between us there lies 
 
 An impassable sea, — 
 A vast yawning chasm 
 
 Full as deep and as wide 
 As that which perdition 
 
 And the heavens divide. 
 And likewise of the future 
 
IMMORTALITY TO DEATH. 125 
 
 Spare also thy breath, 
 For even in Hell 
 
 There is nothing of Death ; 
 No, no, alone for the Earth 
 
 Is the work thus begun 
 Which e'en Time here shall see 
 
 All completed and done. 
 And then for eternity 
 
 Thy race will be run. 
 Poor king ! after all thy conquests 
 
 Thou must perish alone, 
 Without any friends 
 
 And deprived of thy throne, 
 But not until 
 
 The last heir's home. 
 
 11* 
 
VIII. 
 
 ffltclaration of tit 6rabe. 
 
DECLARATION OF THE GRAVE. 
 
 I DWELL by life's river, 
 
 My castle's washed by its wave, 
 And all its tides rest in me, 
 
 For I am the Grave ; 
 With the advent of sin 
 
 I came to the throne, 
 And since then I've reigned 
 
 O'er creation alone; 
 Eelentless Death, here so regal, 
 
 And despotic Time, worn, 
 Have both been my vassals 
 
 Since first I was born ; 
 For I am their sovereign. 
 
 Their liege lord and king. 
 And to me every instant 
 
 Some tribute they bring. 
 And even if these 
 
 Have no portion in thee, 
 Surely some of thy glory 
 
 Belongeth to me ; 
 i 129 
 
130 DECLARATION OF THE GRAVE. 
 
 For the wide world is my realm, 
 
 All its forms are my prey, 
 And I hold all my prisoners 
 
 Forever and aye, — 
 Hold them in chains 
 
 Which no earth-power can break, 
 In fortresses impregnable 
 
 Which no storming can take; 
 Hold them so tightly. 
 
 Securely, and well, 
 That none ever escape 
 
 Of the bondage to tell ; 
 But there in the silence. 
 
 With mould and decay, 
 I sweep every vestige 
 
 Of the earthy away. 
 Leaving naught of the objects 
 
 Once of love, pride, and trust. 
 But a fond recollection 
 
 And a handful of dust ; 
 A brief record of life, 
 
 A rounded-off mound, 
 A slab of white marble marking 
 
 A home in the ground. 
 Which tells of one born, 
 
 And the date there beside, 
 Next the length of the journey, 
 
DECLARATION OF THE GRAVE. 131 
 
 Then the time that he died ; 
 And these I've built everywhere 
 
 By mount, wood, and sea, 
 And you'll find them wherever 
 
 Life's wont to be : 
 Find them deep in the forest, 
 
 And in the jungle as well, 
 Far down in the tropics 
 
 And where the Esquimaux dwell ; 
 Find them in the midst of the hamlet, 
 
 Where the church-j^ard they crown. 
 Great and grand near the city 
 
 And on the hill by the town ; 
 Find them in bronze 
 
 Memorials for the ages to come. 
 And fashioned of sea-weed 
 
 Where its undertows run ; 
 Find them wherever 
 
 There has e'er been a birth, 
 And where life e'er has dwelt 
 
 At any time on the Earth : 
 Oft-times unpretentious. 
 
 Neglected, alone, 
 With nothing to mark, 
 
 And e'en the dweller unknown ; 
 Or perchance locked in the fastness 
 
 Of the waste or the deep. 
 
132 DECLARATION OF THE GRAVE. 
 
 Of which only Omniscience 
 
 The record doth keep; 
 Then again, massive, imposing, 
 
 Lofty, and grand, 
 Towering in splendor 
 
 O'er the great of the land, 
 "With symbols emblazoned 
 
 And sculpturings crowned, 
 "Veritable palaces 
 
 For ashes renowned. 
 But though a pompous exterior, 
 
 "Wealth, or might adds to fame, 
 Alike for sovereign and serf 
 
 The bed is the same ; 
 For I've no state and no stations, 
 
 No rank, titles, or caste : 
 These all are of life. 
 
 And, like life here, are past. 
 "Whether, then, in mausoleum gorgeous 
 
 Or lying bleached on the sand. 
 The sleep's just as sweet 
 
 And the rest is as grand ; 
 But chance times they are larger, — 
 
 Built for an Anak or Saul, — 
 Though among the vast number 
 
 You'll find those that are small, 
 "Wee, tiny things, but 
 
DECLARATION OF THE GRAVE. 133 
 
 High prized as the rest, 
 For the}^ hold buds that have faded 
 
 From maternity's breast, — 
 Hold many an idol 
 
 From life's altars torn, 
 For whom, in sackcloth and ashes, 
 
 Stricken worshippers mourn ; 
 Hold many a darling 
 
 Eound whom love's chains yet twine. 
 And for whom, in their absence. 
 
 Hearts sicken and pine ; 
 Hold many a jewel 
 
 Too costly to stay. 
 So in these vaults of safety 
 
 I have laid them away : 
 Away from life's ills, 
 
 Its pitfalls and snares, 
 Away from its heartaches. 
 
 Its sorrows and cares. 
 Away from its sighings. 
 
 Away from its tears. 
 Away from the burdens 
 
 That increase with its years; 
 Away from the frosts 
 
 That blighteth its flowers. 
 Away from the dangers 
 
 That lurk in its bowers, 
 12 
 
134 DECLARATION OF THE GRAVE. 
 
 Away from the poisons 
 
 That infesteth its air, 
 Away from the canker 
 
 That corrupteth its fair ; 
 Away from the tempests, 
 
 Away from the storms 
 That beat on its noondays 
 
 And obscureth its morns, 
 Away from the hurricanes 
 
 That sweep its seas o'er, 
 Away from the furies 
 
 That lasheth its shore; 
 Away from the labors 
 
 And heats of its days, 
 Away fi'om the monsters 
 
 That prey 'long its ways, 
 Away from its shades. 
 
 Its shadows, and blight. 
 Preserved from its evening 
 
 And saved from its night. 
 Others, however, hold 
 
 The great of the Earth, — 
 The learned, famed, and mighty, 
 
 With the children of worth ; 
 Hold apostles and prophets, 
 
 With the patriarchs, too, 
 The kings and the judges 
 
DECLARATION OF THE GRAVE. 135 
 
 And chief priests of the Jew. 
 Hold Methuselah the aged, 
 
 And David's son wise, 
 While in this same Pantheon 
 
 Strong Samson lies ; 
 Hold the Csesars and Pharaohs, 
 
 And the Herods as well, 
 While here also both Darius 
 
 And Belshazzar now dwell. 
 Hold the cohorts and legions 
 
 Of the armies of old, 
 Centurions, chief captains. 
 
 And warriors bold ; 
 Hold the head that designed 
 
 And the hands that have built, 
 The sweet faces of innocence 
 
 And the dark forms of guilt; 
 Hold the tongue of the sage 
 
 And the heart of the brave, 
 The barretted brow of the priest 
 
 And shackled limbs of the slave j 
 Hold all duration o'er. 
 
 With its greatness and glory. 
 Its matchless traditions 
 
 And unchronicled story ; 
 Hold its years and its ages. 
 
 Its winters and springs. 
 
136 DECLARATION OF THE GRAVE. 
 
 Its tribes with their chieftains, 
 
 Its nations and kings ; 
 Hold the pride of their rule 
 
 And the pomp of their reigns, 
 The fabulous life 
 
 Of its cities and plains ; 
 Hold its days and its nights, 
 
 With their God-given signs, 
 The miraculous works 
 
 Of its wonderful times ; 
 Hold its moats and its mansions, 
 
 Its temples and towers. 
 Its marts and metropolises. 
 
 Its piles and its powers ; 
 Hold its loves and its longings, 
 
 Its funnings and fears, 
 Its gush and its genius, 
 
 Its transports and tears ; 
 Hold its vices and virtues. 
 
 Its lore and its lust, 
 Its majesty and misery. 
 
 Its dazzle and dust; 
 Hold all that's existed 
 
 Since creation's morn, 
 And soon I'll build others 
 
 For that yet unborn : 
 Build them for the future. 
 
DECLARATION OF THE GRAVE. 137 
 
 As I've done for the past, 
 For I hold the first Man, 
 
 And will soon house the last 
 In these quaint, quiet villas 
 
 Where no life-din is heard, 
 "Where the dwellers by none 
 
 Of Earth's commotions are stirred ; 
 But where the warrior reposeth, 
 
 With his battles all o'er, 
 And the foeman's dismayed 
 
 By the carnage no moi'e ; 
 Where the sailor sleeps on, 
 
 All unmindful the blast, 
 And the mariner's dream 
 
 Of the shipwreck is past ; 
 Where the care-burdened pilgrim 
 
 Forgetteth his load. 
 And no clarion awakens 
 
 To the sighs of the road ; 
 Where the oppressed and tormented 
 
 Are exempt from all woes, 
 And security's unbroken 
 
 By the appearance of foes ; 
 Where the fearful and anxious 
 
 A great refuge hath found 
 In peace as majestic 
 
 As the slumbers profound ; 
 12* 
 
138 DECLARATION OF THE GRAVE. 
 
 Where the anguish-racked braia 
 
 With lasting silence is filled, 
 And the trouble-tossed heart 
 
 Forever is stilled ; 
 Where no wail of sorrow 
 
 Breaks in on the sleep, 
 And eyes never open, 
 
 Heavy laden, to weep; 
 Where the bosom ne'er heaves, 
 
 And the tongue lisps no sigh. 
 Where weary hands, folded 
 
 'Cross triumphant breasts, lie ; 
 Where the brow hath no cloudings 
 
 And the temples no throb. 
 And ne'er tired gi*ow the feet 
 
 Which of ashes are shod; 
 Where all earth-blows are ended 
 
 And all flesh-aches hath fled, 
 Where a calm, all unrufiied. 
 
 O'er the sleepers is spread ; 
 Where the cold never enters 
 
 And heats never come. 
 Where storms never beat 
 
 And the tides never run ; 
 Where the days are unrecorded 
 
 And the years have no page, 
 And no note e'er is taken 
 
DECLARATION OF THE GRAVE. 139 
 
 Of fleeting epoch or age ; 
 But where life, denied entrance, 
 
 Is heax-d of no more, 
 And all its ills and vicissitudes 
 
 2!^e'er pause, passing o'er 
 These vast hamlets lowly. 
 
 Fashioned of clay. 
 Hidden far down 
 
 'Neath the grasses away ; 
 "Where the lily first blooms 
 
 And the crocus appears, 
 And the evere-reen's lullino;s 
 
 Eesound through the years ; 
 Where the willow-tree weeps 
 
 And the cypress doth moan, 
 And the ivy wild clambers 
 
 Where the lichen hath grown ; 
 Where the sunlight falls softly 
 
 And the winds gently blow. 
 And the clouds e'en are vergers 
 
 For the service below ; 
 Where the spring-time casts blossoms 
 
 And the autumn strews leaves, 
 And winter its mantle 
 
 Of purity weaves ; 
 Where the dawn's rays and the settings 
 
 Doth ever converge, 
 
140 DECLARATION OF THE GRAVE. 
 
 Where the morn chanteth requiems 
 
 And the night wails a dirge ; 
 "Where stars are the guardians 
 
 Of disquietude's rest, 
 And Earth folds her children 
 
 In peace to her breast ; 
 Where a hush seizes Nature, 
 
 And awe fills the air, 
 As mortality reads 
 
 Its epitaph there 
 On these chapel doors numberless. 
 
 Every parish plot round. 
 Where no dissension in creed 
 
 Or doctrine is found, 
 But where the bigot hath ceased 
 
 Of his dogmas to tell. 
 And both the faithful and heretic 
 
 In harmony dwell ; 
 Where no altar awaits 
 
 And no church-bell is rung, 
 Where no anthem resounds 
 
 And no censer is swung, 
 Where no vespers ascend 
 
 And no matins are said, 
 Where no penitent kneels 
 
 And no penance is paid ; 
 But where the mitre and crosier 
 
DECLARATION OF THE GRAVE. 141 
 
 Are eaten of rust, 
 And the flock, with its bishop, 
 
 Hath crumbled to dust 
 In these mighty towns, humble. 
 
 Where no dwellers are seen, 
 Where naught save the cappings 
 
 Appear 'bove the green ; 
 Where the houses are hillocks 
 
 Constructed of clods, 
 Windowless habitations 
 
 Eoofed o'er with sods, 
 Where the tenants are myriad. 
 
 Yet untrodden the floors. 
 And knobs inside avail not 
 
 On the outswinging doors ; 
 Where neighbors and kinsfolk 
 
 Each other ne'er greet. 
 And no bustle nor babble 
 
 Is heard from the street ; 
 But where business hath closed 
 
 Its ledger for aye, 
 And the trance of the restings 
 
 Lure the child from its play ; 
 Where the earthy to Earth 
 
 Hath taken its flight. 
 And life-scenes are lost 
 
 In oblivion's night; 
 
142 DECLARATION OF THE GRAVE. 
 
 Where all of its passions, 
 
 Its emotions, and aims 
 Doth find in the mould 
 
 Blest relief from its claims ; 
 Where anger resides not 
 
 And resentment's unknown, 
 Where none ever forgive 
 
 And naught can atone ; 
 Where grief is unavailing 
 
 And regrets all are vain. 
 Where opportunity, lost, 
 
 No remorse can regain ; 
 Where slander is speechless 
 
 And scandal's subdued. 
 Where alone the virtues departed 
 
 Are recalled and reviewed ; 
 Where faults are forgotten 
 
 And shortcomings concealed, 
 Where only the past 
 
 In its beaut}- 's revealed ; 
 Where defects all are hidden, 
 
 With dishonor and shame. 
 Where distortion is swept 
 
 From deformity's frame ; 
 Where all loss and attainment, 
 
 With their pathos and thrill, 
 In tenements ashen 
 
DECLARATION OF THE GRAVE. 143 
 
 Are pulseless and still ; 
 Where no poverty pincheth 
 
 And no beggar appeals, 
 Where no charity giveth 
 
 And no villany steals ; 
 Where wealth hath no station 
 
 And pomp hath no place, 
 Where position and preferment 
 
 Exciteth no race ; 
 Where fortune's no favorites 
 
 And beauty no crown. 
 Where fashion's no votaries 
 
 And pride hath no frown ; 
 Where the hero's no worshippers 
 
 And the conqueror no train, 
 Where the plaudits of empire 
 
 Will ne'er rouse them again ; 
 Whei'e oppression's no bondsmen 
 
 And tyranny's flown, 
 Where might wields no sceptre 
 
 And the king hath no throne ; 
 Where naught can distinguish 
 
 'Twixt the pure and defiled, 
 The prince and the pauper, 
 
 The wreathed and reviled. 
 But where all grades and orders 
 
 Alike of nothingness fare, 
 
144 DECLARATION OF THE GRAVE. 
 
 And on the same mighty level 
 
 Its equalities share 
 In these grand cities, lifeless, 
 
 Where resideth in peace 
 The countless populations 
 
 That ever increase ; 
 For though through Death, ghastly, 
 
 Life doth e'er pass away, 
 Yet in these lodgings narrow 
 
 All its forms must decay ; 
 Every shape of the earthy 
 
 Earth claims for its own. 
 And dust hath its dwelling 
 
 In these mansions of stone. 
 But more : I'm the shrine of the living 
 
 As well the home of the dead. 
 The mount of lamentation 
 
 Whence a world's gloom is shed, 
 A dark vale of privation 
 
 Where Earth's great trials grow, 
 And its rivers of agony 
 
 Are unstayed in their flow ; 
 A wilderness of desolation, 
 
 Life's ways lined and crossed. 
 Where all of its forms 
 
 Disappear and ai^e lost, 
 And yet the place of all others 
 
DECLARATION OF THE GRAVE. 145 
 
 Most dear to its heart, 
 For it marketh the spot 
 
 Where its fellowships part, 
 Marketh the spot 
 
 Where its hopes blighted lie, 
 Where all its possessions 
 
 Are borne as they die ; 
 Where its sweet buds and blossoms 
 
 In the morning doth fade, 
 And its full ripened sheaves 
 
 Are at even-tide laid ; 
 Where the light of its firesides 
 
 Is extinguished in night, 
 And the prides of its households 
 
 Are buried from sight ; 
 Where its greatness descends 
 
 And its splendors are lowered, 
 Where its jewels are housed 
 
 And its treasures are stored ; 
 
 Where 
 
 ts brightness is ijai'nered 
 
 And its joys all are moored, 
 Where its beauties are captive 
 
 And its idols immured ; 
 Where its eyes ever turn 
 
 And its footsteps doth tend, 
 Where its avenues lead 
 
 And its journeys all end ; 
 k 13 
 
146 DECLARATION OF THE GRAVE. 
 
 Hallowed mounds of affection 
 
 Where, unrestrained through the years, 
 All of Man's generations 
 
 Intermingle their tears ; 
 Where the crown e'en and coronet 
 
 Their wanderings keep, 
 And the gay and the frivolous 
 
 Aside turn to weep ; 
 Where the heart of the wayward 
 
 In contrition doth melt, 
 And throughout enmity's bosom 
 
 Compunction is felt ; 
 Where all rancor and bitterness 
 
 From the spirit takes flight, 
 And estrangement, abashed, 
 
 Doth vanish from sight ; 
 Where nothing save tenderness 
 
 E'er lifteth its head. 
 And regard for the living 
 
 Is the call from the dead ; 
 Matchless stations of friendship, 
 
 Meditation's blest bowers, 
 Where sorrow burns incense 
 
 And bereavement strews flowers ; 
 Where afliiction is cherished, 
 
 And sacred its womb 
 And holy the rendings 
 
DECLARATION OF THE GRAVE. 147 
 
 That are born of the tomb ; 
 Where memory's a mine 
 
 Of gems priceless, untold, 
 And the mintage of recollection 
 
 Is more precious than gold ; 
 Where love builds its altars 
 
 And keeps burning their fires, 
 Beareth its offerings 
 
 And reareth the spires 
 Of a wondrous metropolis. 
 
 Built in the ground. 
 Where the loved and the lost 
 
 Of all ages are found ; 
 And there, in nameless state enthroned, 
 
 I receive existence born, 
 Possessed of all its yesterdays 
 
 And waiting its to-morrow's morn : 
 Waiting the present's bustle, 
 
 Its revelry and strife. 
 Waiting its pomp, its powers, its pride. 
 
 Its argosies of life ; 
 Waiting the conquering years to come 
 
 In triumphal train along, 
 Waiting their splendors and their spoils. 
 
 Their chains and captive throng; 
 Waiting the race of mortal kind. 
 
 With the course o'er which 'tis run, 
 
148 DECLARATION OF THE GRAVE. 
 
 Waiting all Nature, Time, and Death, 
 
 The universe and sun ; 
 Waiting the system, with its orbs 
 
 Which comi^ose this finite sphere. 
 Waiting to bring the void again 
 
 Which was ere form was here ; 
 For all of these, in truth, are mine, 
 
 And to me shall surely come 
 Soon as the gathering shadows fall 
 
 And each its work hath done. 
 But why call I this victory. 
 
 Or why such boast as gain. 
 When the Son of Heaven's God eternal 
 
 Hath felt the pressure of my chain ? 
 When the " Fount of Life" 
 
 In my domain was found, 
 And the Creator infinite 
 
 In the creature's arms lay bound? 
 Ah, truly I'm mighty, 
 
 But this triumph's sublime. 
 And it raiseth me up 
 
 Till I'm almost divine, — 
 Raiseth me up to a height 
 
 Where I see that, though 
 Perhaps not in others. 
 
 Thou art surely in me, 
 Who not only subdueth 
 
DECLARATION OF THE GRAVE. 149 
 
 These broad realms of Time, 
 But have also led captive 
 
 The Sovereign of thine. 
 Behold, therefore, I pray thee. 
 
 All my conquests and gains; 
 Accept now my kinship 
 
 And acknowledge my claims. 
 
 13* 
 
IX. 
 
 jEmmortalitK to tbt 6rabe. 
 
IMMORTALITY TO THE GRAVE. 
 
 O Grave, transgression's 
 
 Pale within, 
 Reigning scion 
 
 Of the house of sin, 
 As the chronicles 
 
 Doth evince, 
 In doom's heraldry 
 
 Euin's prince. 
 Erected by- 
 Almighty breath, 
 On destruction's throne 
 
 Outranking Death, 
 Called of Omnipotence 
 
 And given place. 
 Queenly Nature 
 
 To efface, 
 As likewise also 
 
 Lordly Time, 
 Joint participants 
 
 In a race's crime; 
 
 153 
 
154 IMMORTALITY TO THE GRAVE. 
 
 And though even thus 
 
 From Divinity 
 Receiving realm 
 
 And sovereignty, 
 Still, only crowned 
 
 Of matter king, 
 'Twas an ashen conquest 
 
 Thou didst bring. 
 In that the purpose 
 
 Of thy reign 
 Was through the rot 
 
 To purge the stain ; 
 But this, to Justice blest 
 
 A guilt oblation. 
 Dissolution meant 
 
 For all creation. 
 And while e'en this 
 
 Is still thy name, 
 And earth returns 
 
 To Earth the same. 
 As erst in Paradise 
 
 Thy sceptre rose, 
 Material rule 
 
 For aye to close. 
 Yet know, O Grave, 
 Thy power for ill 
 The heavens doth now 
 
IMMORTALITY TO THE GRAVE. 155 
 
 With unction fiUj 
 For lo! anon 
 
 Upon the clay 
 Which a penal 
 
 Force did slay, 
 Wasting in 
 
 Thy caves away, 
 Back to nothingness 
 
 'Neath thy sway, 
 From out corruption 
 
 And decay, 
 Putrefaction's parade 
 
 And worm's array. 
 With healing beams 
 
 In cleansing play, 
 Reviving glows 
 
 Of living ray, 
 Fringed about 
 
 With deathless spray, 
 Burst the glories 
 
 Of redemj^tion's day ; 
 And as its Chieftain 
 
 Eent thy chain, 
 Sought the heights 
 
 Again to reign, 
 Eang through Earth 
 
 This glad refrain : 
 
156 IMMORTALITY TO THE GRAVE. 
 
 "O Man, thy dust 
 
 Shall rise again ; 
 For behold, captivity 
 
 I have led — 
 By the blood 
 
 In Death I shed, 
 With the life 
 
 For thee I gave — 
 Captive e'en 
 
 This conquering Grave ; 
 And while supreme 
 
 O'er spheres of Earth, 
 Consuming all shapes 
 
 Of carnal birth. 
 Still list the strain, 
 
 Devouring Tomb, 
 I've made of thee 
 
 Transition's womb, 
 Of which, on incorruption's 
 
 Natal morn, 
 Sublime and spiritual 
 
 Shall be born 
 Glorified structures 
 
 In Nature's guise. 
 But transcending e'en 
 
 Celestial skies 
 In their bewilderin"- 
 
IMMORTALITY TO THE GRAVE. 157 
 
 Glare above, 
 As jewels foi- the diadem 
 
 Of a Saviour's love ; 
 For 'Lord of Glory,' 
 
 I am He, 
 And victory gives 
 
 This crown to me." 
 Hence, though no form 
 
 Of human mould 
 Can e'er escape 
 
 Thy putrid hold, 
 Flee thy portal 
 
 Pale and dim, 
 Nor pass around 
 
 Thy castle grim, 
 'Tis full as sure 
 
 No power of air. 
 Earth, Hell, or Heaven 
 
 Can keep it there ; 
 For lo ! O corruptible, 
 
 There now awaits. 
 Within the shimmerings 
 
 Of pearly gates, 
 'Neath life's 
 
 Everlasting glow. 
 By its fount's 
 
 Immortal flow, 
 14 
 
158 IMMORTALITY TO THE GRAVE. 
 
 'Long the terraces 
 Of joy supernal, 
 'Side the mounts 
 Of love eternal, 
 On the thrones 
 
 Salvation's gilding, 
 In the saintly 
 
 Mansions building — 
 Of a Daysman's 
 
 Travail done, 
 And garnished with 
 
 The spoils He's won — 
 Imperial place 
 
 And regal role 
 For the body 
 
 Like the soul, 
 And naught inanimate 
 
 Or of breath. 
 Living might, 
 
 Nor power of Death, 
 Present things, 
 
 Nor those to come. 
 Height nor depth, 
 
 Nor breadth in one, 
 Decay's effacement. 
 
 Nor extinction's trance, 
 Shall ever rob it 
 
IMMORTALITY TO THE GRAVE. 159 
 
 Of its inheritance. 
 And, as an earnest 
 
 Of the pledge, 
 Behold, upon 
 
 Dominion's ledge, 
 Above all promontories 
 
 Of being broad, 
 In this self-same 
 
 Flesh is God ; 
 From whence. 
 
 Incarnate as before. 
 In the garb 
 
 Through thee He wore, 
 Deified at 
 
 Thy riven door, 
 "King of kings," 
 
 He'll come once more 
 In the pageantry 
 
 Of Heaven's lore, 
 "With the spirits 
 
 Blest of yore ; 
 Come, of eternity's 
 
 Conquest o'er. 
 To receive 
 
 Thy garnered store, 
 And to this coming, 
 
 Lo ! thy yoke — 
 
160 IMMORTALITY TO THE GRAVE. 
 
 E'en like the glebe 
 
 Of earth-land broke — 
 Eeceives frona reaper's 
 
 Hand the grain, 
 And sows it 
 
 Unto life again ; 
 But sows it all 
 
 Of shrivelled wheat, 
 Blasted by 
 
 Sin's storm and heat; 
 Sows it 
 
 Of unripened corn, 
 Which transgression's frost 
 
 Hath shorn ; 
 Sows it 
 
 Of the Avithered fig, 
 Plucked from frail guilt, 
 
 Blighted twig; 
 Sows it 
 
 Of "Nature's dwarfed vine. 
 Sows it of the drift 
 
 Of Time, 
 Sows it 
 
 In expiring breath, 
 Sows it with the hand 
 
 Of Death ; 
 Sows it 
 
IMMORTALITY TO THE GRAVE. 161 
 
 'Neath the clods away, 
 But ever in dishonor 
 
 To decay, 
 And hence the wonders 
 
 That abound. 
 The inexplicable mysteries 
 
 That here are found 
 By narrowed conceptions. 
 
 Of finite sway, 
 Around a blessed 
 
 Eesurrection day; 
 As though the unwasted energies 
 
 Of a Creator's power — 
 E'en the very same 
 
 That calls the flower 
 From out winter's catacombs 
 
 Of ice and snow 
 To the unapproachable splendors 
 
 Of the spring-time's glow, 
 The plumaged chorister 
 
 From encasing cell. 
 Or gorgeous butterfly 
 
 Out a reptile's cell — 
 Could not revive 
 
 This human must, 
 Nor vestments fashion 
 
 For the saints from dust. 
 14* 
 
162 IMMORTALITV TO THE GRAVE. 
 
 Why, did He not 
 
 At first create — 
 In the majesty 
 
 Of His sovereign state, 
 And from very chaos 
 
 To an eternal fate — 
 Man's body, a marvel 
 
 Full as great 
 • As that which e'er 
 
 Will attend its rise 
 In immortal glory 
 
 To its native skies? 
 And may this God not now — 
 
 When of nothing before — 
 From the ruins of His building 
 
 A temple restore ? 
 Ay, verily ; but couldst thou 
 
 Only comprehend 
 Thou hast no wreckage 
 
 For His hand to mend ! 
 For lo ! though all unrecorded 
 
 Of prophetic pen, 
 Account its towering height 
 
 O'er terrestial ken. 
 And while far removed 
 
 From earthly gaze 
 By surrounding atmospheres 
 
IMMORTALITY TO THE GRAVE. 163 
 
 Of mortal haze, 
 A Eedeemer's ransom, 
 
 Boasting Grave, 
 Doth e'en this fabric 
 
 From destruction save. 
 For oh, amazing truth ! 
 
 On reclaiming course, 
 It transforms corruption 
 
 At its fountain's source, 
 And, ere the wearer 
 
 E'en doth leave, 
 On the loom of waste 
 
 Begins to weave — 
 Of snapping thread. 
 
 And parting strand — 
 The warp of the raiment 
 
 For Immanuel's land ; 
 And the only change 
 
 In thine abodes, 
 Where putrescent 
 
 Mist corrodes, 
 Is that decay's 
 
 Erasing modes — 
 Augmented e'er 
 
 By grub's inroads — 
 A trifle faster 
 
 The spindle loads, 
 
164 IMMORTALITY TO THE GRAVE. 
 
 And thus sooner completes 
 
 For Heaven the robes 
 With which the King 
 
 His trophies fair 
 Will full invest, 
 
 In realms of air, 
 At that wondrous 
 
 Point of Time — 
 The last and yet 
 
 The most sublime — 
 When a perfected creation 
 
 Forth shall shine, 
 In the uncreated excellence 
 
 Of the life divine, 
 A nameless satrap 
 
 Of Deity 
 In the cavalcade 
 
 Of eternity. 
 All the immensities 
 
 Of infinitude o'er 
 With its Lord to reign 
 
 For evermore. 
 And hence, O Grave, 
 
 Thy vaunted sway. 
 As well thy realm. 
 
 Must pass away. 
 Nor leave behind. 
 
IMMORTALITY TO THE GRAVE. 165 
 
 Throughout all space, 
 The veriest speck 
 
 To point the place 
 "Where thus, in dire 
 
 And absolute overthrow. 
 Existence met 
 
 Its foulest foe. 
 
X. 
 
 ©rfence of ^tU. 
 
4 
 
DEFENCE OF HELL. 
 
 Unlike all these subjects, 
 
 My story I'll tell 
 As becometh a monarch : 
 
 My name is Hell, — 
 A sovereign in all respects 
 
 Equal to thee, 
 E'en though 'twixt our realms lies 
 
 An untraversable sea ; 
 And while truly thy reign 
 
 Hath been longer than mine, 
 'Tis not more enduring. 
 
 Nor yet more sublime; 
 For I too am a ruler eternal, 
 
 Swaying a sceptre divine, 
 With a throne just as stable 
 
 And a crown bright as thine; 
 Possessed of a kingdom as mighty, 
 
 A domain just as broad, 
 
 15 169 
 
170 DEFENCE OF HELL. 
 
 Clothed with powers fully as absolute 
 
 As e'er were given by God ; 
 Hence be pleased to remember, 
 
 While my tale thou dost hear, 
 That I come not as a supplicant. 
 
 But to speak as thy peer; 
 Hearken, therefore, I pray thee. 
 
 While I, a prince brother, relate 
 The glorious work I perform 
 
 In this immortal state. 
 Far back in the cycles, 
 
 Ere Nature had birth, 
 Before Time commenced to number 
 
 The epochs of Earth, 
 Ere Death o'er creation 
 
 His dark banner unfurled, 
 Or a gluttonous G-rave 
 
 Began to prey on a world ; 
 Before these skies e'en were fashioned. 
 
 Or these orbs did adorn. 
 Ere constellations appeared, 
 
 Or these systems were born, 
 Before immensity was peopled 
 
 With on-rushing spheres. 
 Or the comet took flight 
 
 On its round of the years; 
 Ere the thunders saluted 
 
DEFENCE OF HELL. 171 
 
 Their Maker on high, 
 Or the lightnings shot forth 
 
 From His throne in the sky; 
 Ere these stars rose to tivinkle, 
 
 Or yon suns dawned to shine, 
 Long anterior to Man's advent 
 
 'Midst the children divine; 
 But while yet all was chaos, 
 
 Save the heights blest of thine, 
 'Twas then the Godhead erected 
 
 This black empire of mine; 
 Built its walls massive, eternal. 
 
 Its towers for aye to endure, 
 Gave it gates everlasting 
 
 And foundations secure; 
 In profound isolation 
 
 Eeared it far off, alone, 
 In grim, awful grandeur. 
 
 Beings damned for a home ; 
 Filled it with terrors transcendent, 
 
 Of which none can conceive, 
 That no tongue may tell 
 
 And no creature believe ; 
 Gave it such depths 
 
 Of despair, gloom, and woe, 
 That e'en eternity's too short 
 
 To the bottom to go ; 
 
172 DEFENCE OF HELL. 
 
 Shrouded it in darkness, 
 
 Then of fate fixed the reign, 
 So that none passing its portals 
 
 Would e'er forth come atjain : 
 Named it " Abomination of Desolation," 
 
 Then wrote o'er its gates, 
 "Here divine retribution 
 
 The transgressor awaits, 
 For here every scourge 
 
 Of God's vengeance is stored, 
 And all of the vials 
 
 Of His wrath are outpoured 
 On the head of each subject 
 
 Who rebels 'gainst His throne, 
 For which crime damnation 
 
 In these depths must atone." 
 Thus sin's eternal doom sealed 
 
 And its dwelling ordained. 
 The judgment pronounced 
 
 And the penalty framed, 
 God called me to being 
 
 In this His decree : 
 " Hell, in my Justice 
 
 I will hence reign in thee, 
 For to execute this 
 
 On those who defy, 
 I must needs have a prison 
 
DEFENCE OF HELL. 173 
 
 For the palace on high. 
 I have therefore created, 
 
 And while to thine hand 
 I consign now forever 
 
 This traitorous band 
 Of beings once angels 
 
 Eesplendent in light, 
 Whom guilt hath transformed 
 
 Into demons of night, 
 I give thee commission, 
 
 All the future to be. 
 Death eternal to visit 
 
 On all crime against me. 
 However existent. 
 
 Or wherever found, 
 Throughout immensity's wastes 
 
 To infinitude's bound ; 
 And, with this ray rescript, 
 
 I to thee impart 
 Both the power and discernment 
 
 To establish thy part, 
 And thus add to my reign 
 
 "What to law must be given, — 
 The terrors of Gehenna 
 
 With the glories of Heaven, 
 I therefore make thee my viceroy. 
 
 And here proclaim thee abroad, 
 15* 
 
174 DEFENCE OF HELL. 
 
 Prince Sovereign of Perdition 
 
 In the peerage of God." 
 Having thus by Jehovah 
 
 Been .called to a throne 
 Which, in point of stability, 
 
 Was the peer of His own, 
 I at once took my place 
 
 In His Almighty reign, 
 And, as Deity's inquisitor, 
 
 I came in the train 
 Of His creative majest}^. 
 
 On its Omniscient rounds, 
 As He fashioned the worlds 
 
 With which His kingdom abounds, 
 And as system by system 
 
 To His empire was given, 
 I tested their fealty 
 
 And reported to Heaven. 
 Hence when these low realms 
 
 Of the finite had birth, 
 I followed creation 
 
 To the Eden of Earth,- 
 And there, 'mid the scenes 
 
 Of a Creator's rest, 
 In the garden of innocence 
 
 Which His presence had blest,. 
 I first beheld Man, 
 
DEFENCE OF HELL. 175 
 
 In the image Divine, 
 The Lord of a world 
 
 And its wonders sublime, 
 Swaying the sceptre 
 
 Of dominion at large, 
 With land, ocean, and air 
 
 Given o'er to his charge, — 
 A being so Godlike, 
 
 Majestic, and pure. 
 That 'twould seem as tnough 
 
 The heavens — which forever endure — 
 Must sooner have fallen 
 
 Ere he could transgress. 
 Or his allegiance to God 
 
 E'en an instant repress ; 
 And yet I had only to offer. 
 
 Then of safety assure. 
 And his fall was complete 
 
 And his end was secure ; 
 For humanity's prince — 
 
 Representing a race — 
 That moment was banished 
 
 For aye from the face 
 Of an all-holy God, 
 
 Who then decreed that he roam 
 Through Time's dreary wastes 
 
 Till Death brouirht him home 
 
176 DEFENCE OF HELL. 
 
 To the abysmal depths 
 
 Of damnation's sea, 
 The full, eternal reward 
 
 Of his credence in me ; 
 And from that day to this, 
 
 In an unbroken throng, 
 His sin-stricken children 
 
 All the centuries long, 
 With hope all abandoned, 
 
 In trembling and fear 
 Have madly rushed to the fate 
 
 Appointed them here, 
 Where the guilt-tainted wretch 
 
 Of Earth's every age 
 Doth find that crime's freedom, 
 
 After all, 's but a cage 
 Filled with birds of uncleanness 
 
 And vultures of prey 
 That have stolen both God 
 
 And His Heaven away, 
 And all denuded hath left him, 
 
 In the great evermore, 
 A ghastly skeleton wreck 
 
 On that eternal shore 
 Where the thunders of wrath 
 
 Doth unceasingly roll 
 And the tide-waves of vengeance 
 
DEFENCE OF HELL. 177 
 
 Engulfeth the soul 
 In ruin as boundless 
 
 And destruction as wide 
 As the prison-house infinite 
 
 In which they reside ; 
 Where the chain bindeth fast 
 
 And the bars are unwrenehed, 
 *' Where the worm dieth not 
 
 And the fire is not quenched," 
 But where sin's every shade, 
 
 And e'en the semblance of guilt, 
 On the sword of Justice 
 
 Are empaled to the hilt ; 
 Where every stain on the soul, 
 
 In all its blackness, returns 
 And, inflamed by its venom. 
 
 Everlastingly burns ; 
 Where treachery's cunning 
 
 And hypocrisy's dash, 
 Unmasked and accursed, 
 
 Are stung by the lash ; 
 Where infidelity's teachings 
 
 And heresy's tongue, 
 'Midst the torments of verity, 
 
 All the future are dumb ; 
 Where blasphemj^'s scoflings. 
 
 With its jestings profane, 
 
178 DEFENCE OF HELL. 
 
 Doth reap of the whirlwind 
 
 Its seedings of shame ; 
 Where the greed that oppresseth 
 
 And the mammon that begs, 
 Of the cup of damnation 
 
 Doth drink to the dregs ; 
 Where vice and depravity 
 
 Are consumed by their lust 
 In the flame which reduceth 
 
 What it feeds on to dust; 
 Where vanity's tinsel 
 
 Is singed of its gloss, 
 And pride's only mooring 
 
 Is its eternal loss ; 
 Where all the ruined of Earth, 
 
 With the fallen of light, 
 Shut out from God's presence, 
 
 Forever sink in the night 
 That hath no silver linings 
 
 To its dark clouds of gloom, 
 No hope-ray to soften 
 
 The terrors of doom, 
 No chance of escape, 
 
 No deliverance day, 
 No hand that can snatch 
 
 From these torments away; 
 No relief from these wailings, 
 
DEFENCE OF HELL. 179 
 
 No discharge from these fears, 
 No surcease of sorrows, 
 
 No end to these tears, 
 No calms for these sobbings, 
 
 No draught for this thirst. 
 No bahn'for these hearts 
 
 Which in agony burst; 
 No rest for the weary. 
 
 Nothing bright for the sad. 
 No promising future 
 
 To cheer and malie glad ; 
 But ever the same, 
 
 Only deepening apace 
 As the cycles unending 
 
 Eoll onward through space ; 
 Deeper and deeper, 
 
 Down, down they go 
 To new scenes of torture 
 
 And torment below; 
 Farther and farther 
 
 From the sainted above. 
 Farther and farther 
 
 From God and His love. 
 Finding each instant 
 
 Some lower place to dwell 
 In the ever-deepening gloom 
 
 Of a bottomless Hell. 
 
180 DEFENCE OF HELL. 
 
 Horror of horrors, 
 
 Pandemon's land, 
 Peoj)led with demons, 
 
 Devils, and damned. 
 Where turmoil and strife 
 
 In hideous uproar abound. 
 Where despair gnaws the soul 
 
 And the canker-worm's found ; 
 Where wild cries for deliverance 
 
 Ever pierceth the air, 
 And the dragon Eemorse 
 
 Ne'er returns to his lair ; 
 Where passion's unbridled 
 
 And lust's not restrained, 
 Where appetite's no bounds 
 
 And vice goes unchained, 
 With nothing to satisfy, 
 
 Naught ever assuaged, 
 No power to conciliate 
 
 These monsters uncaged; 
 No place of refuge 
 
 For which to take flight, 
 Nothing left but to sink 
 
 In eternity's night. 
 Such, then, my kingdom, 
 
 Thus sin-built the throne 
 On which — God's minister of vengeance- 
 
DEFENCE OF HELL. 181 
 
 I reign supreme and alone, 
 With an archfiend for chancellor, 
 
 Legions of demons whom his edicts obey, 
 Ever forth in the Earth going. 
 
 Seeking souls for their prey. 
 But no appearance like this 
 
 On yon side the skies; 
 There the Hell-garb's discarded 
 
 For some attractive disguise ; 
 For though my agencies myriad 
 
 Are of the lowest depths here, 
 Yet as Heaven's own chosen 
 
 They in Time dolh appear ; 
 Imps of blackness 
 
 In raiment white, 
 Hideous devils 
 
 As seraphs bright, 
 Monsters of wickedness 
 
 In holy places. 
 Fiends infernal 
 
 With cherubs' faces. 
 Destruction's emissaries 
 
 In saints' attire. 
 Offering life 
 
 On its funeral pyre, 
 Perdition's minions 
 
 Lulling sense 
 
 16 
 
182 DEFENCE OF HELL. 
 
 By a tender of bliss 
 
 As the recompense, 
 Covering up bitterness 
 
 'Neath a coating of sweet, 
 Feeding Man ashes 
 
 In the semblance of meat, 
 Masking corruption 
 
 With the health-glowings pinlc, 
 Concealing the precipice 
 
 With flowers at its brink ; 
 Tempting with honors, 
 
 Bribing with gold, 
 Yet ne'er telling the price 
 
 At which these are sold; 
 Alluring with pleasure 
 
 And the joys that entice. 
 Leading captive with passion 
 
 And ensnaring with vice; 
 Wreathing the cup 
 
 With innocent mirth, 
 Yet hiding the horrors 
 
 To which it gives birth ; 
 Presenting place and position 
 
 As the sum total of good, — 
 A stone now for bread 
 
 And a serpent for food ; 
 Giving darkness for light. 
 
DEFENCE OF HELL. 183 
 
 Taking brightness for gloom, 
 Asking Heaven for Hell 
 
 And glory for doom ; 
 At all times appearing 
 
 As exponents of right, 
 Decojdng the unwary 
 
 To these regions of night. 
 And how well they succeed, 
 
 Thou hast only to class 
 Here at Death's gates 
 
 The numbers that pass 
 Each hour, aye, each instant, 
 
 And then thou wilt see 
 That I receive thousands 
 
 Where one goes to thee ; 
 And this steady strain 
 ■ Of the lost ones thus won 
 Will never diminish 
 
 Till these earth-years are done. 
 And then, for the future — 
 
 But that's needless to tell, 
 For well dost thou know 
 
 There will e'er be a Hell, — 
 A Hell deep as infinitude. 
 
 Like immensity broad, 
 O'erflowing with torment, 
 
 And eternal as God ; 
 
184 DEFENCE OF HELL. 
 
 Hence, in view of thia record, 
 'Tis the boast of my sway, 
 
 I'm in all things thy peer, 
 
 And thou canst not answer nay. 
 
XI. 
 
 ImmortalitK to ffielL 
 
 16* 
 
IMMORTALITY TO HELL. 
 
 Oh, hideous monster ! 
 
 Black demon of woe ! 
 'Twas surely wisdom divine 
 
 That fixed thy portion below, 
 That established thy dwelling 
 
 In regions of night, 
 Abandoned of God 
 
 And shut out from His sight ; 
 That, far down in a corner 
 
 Of immensity, built 
 Thy vaults of corruption 
 
 And thy sink-holes of guilt, 
 Whence the howls of the damned 
 
 Could never ascend, 
 Nor the stench from the rotting 
 
 Would ever offend ; 
 There is no other place, surely. 
 
 In eternal realms wide, 
 Save these lowlands infernal, 
 
 Where thou couldst reside ; 
 
 187 
 
188 IMMORTALITY TO HELL. 
 
 Thou art e'en truly so loathsome 
 
 As scarce to seem fit 
 To e'en have a home 
 
 In this horrible pit, 
 Of whose pollution and terrors 
 
 I ne'er told need be, 
 Now that mine eyes 
 
 Have rested on thee ; 
 And yet — the chief monster fiend 
 
 From this den — thou art come 
 With devilish effrontery 
 
 To claim we are one. 
 Does the prison-house ever 
 
 To the palace compare? 
 And pray tell me, since when 
 
 Are dungeons so fair? 
 Since when hath the garb 
 
 That the convict doth wear 
 Been stamped with the impress 
 
 Of royalty there ? 
 Since when hath his fetters, 
 
 That dismally clank, 
 Become the insignia 
 
 Of regal order or rank? 
 Or since when hath the cage 
 
 Of the prisoner, alone. 
 Attained to the majesty 
 
IMMORTALITY TO HELL. 189 
 
 Of the dais and throne? 
 Since when hath the famished, 
 
 Appealing for bread, 
 Supplanted the children 
 
 Who at the table are fed ? 
 Since when hath the transport 
 
 Or the crushed galley-slave 
 Succeeded the ruler 
 
 Who doth pardon and save? 
 Or since when hath the shrieks 
 
 At the gates of despair 
 Been changed to hosannas 
 
 Greeting the heir? 
 Since when hath realms cursed 
 
 Lost their mantle of woes, 
 Or the hot arid waste 
 
 Began to bloom as the rose? 
 Since when hath the depths 
 
 Ascended on high, 
 Or the lowest part of creation 
 
 Been transformed to its skj'? 
 Or since when hath sovereignty 
 
 Ceased wielding the rod. 
 Or thou — prince of devils — 
 
 Become the compeer of God ? 
 And yet all this, impossible, 
 
 Would first have to be 
 
190 IMMORTALITY TO HELL. 
 
 Ere thou e'en couldst obtain 
 
 An acquaintance with me. 
 Thou art at best a creation, 
 
 And that of order so low 
 That Infinite knowledge alone 
 
 Can thy depravity know ; 
 Yet, hideous, abandoned, 
 
 And vile as thou art, 
 Eternal Justice created. 
 
 Then gave thee a part 
 In the Divine administration, 
 
 Once only of love. 
 Till angels, transgressing, fell 
 
 From high orders above, 
 And for these convict and outcast 
 
 Came this prison-house plan ; 
 'Twas never conceived of 
 
 Nor intended for Man ; 
 But he, — an eternal creation 
 
 Of the heavenly King, — 
 In their stead 'twas decreed 
 
 A new homage should bring. 
 Not that light would e'er miss 
 
 Its few bright, banished ones. 
 Or skies immortal be dimmed 
 
 By these blotted-out suns ; 
 For had the heavens e'en fallen, 
 
IMMORTALITY TO HELL. 191 
 
 Still their Builder would reign, 
 And He ten-thousandfold grander 
 
 Could have created again ; 
 But, of that inscrutable wisdom 
 
 Which hedgeth His throne, 
 He fixed Man the chief light 
 
 In His creative zone 
 Invested him with the image 
 
 None other had borne, 
 And conferred His own likeness 
 
 To perfect and adorn ; 
 Breathed the life of eternity 
 
 Into his frame, 
 Then gave him a world 
 
 To control in His name ; 
 Of all other beings 
 
 With him held converse alone, 
 E'en descended the heights 
 
 And appeared in his home ; 
 For already with semblance 
 
 He'd implanted an infinite mind 
 With capabilities only 
 
 By His Omniscience defined ; 
 And had naught ever obstructed 
 
 This avenue broad 
 Which led from the creature 
 
 Direct to his God, 
 
192 IMMORTALITY TO HELL. 
 
 Had nothing e'er marred 
 
 This intercourse sweet, 
 In which the Eternal and finite 
 
 As in friendship did meet, 
 Man, borne aloft by the forces 
 
 Of its divinely-translating leaven, 
 Would have become a prince of immortals 
 
 And Earth a suburb of Heaven. 
 But away, away with the possibilities 
 
 Of what once might have been ; 
 They're monstrous realities, 
 
 Not the ghosts of it, seen ; 
 Not merely some vague 
 
 Phantomed wonder that fell. 
 But the form and the substance 
 
 Of thy torments, O Hell ; 
 For 'twas these built thy dungeons, 
 
 With their gloom, blight, and dearth, 
 Stole brightness from Heaven 
 
 And its monarch from Earth, — 
 Ambitious possibilities 
 
 That forth with angels were thrust, 
 That called the Lord of creation 
 
 Back from glory to dust. 
 And just here lies the secret 
 
 Of all pollution and thee : 
 God, all holy, the Sovereign, 
 
IMMORTALITY TO HELL. 193 
 
 But the creature made free, 
 Given freedom to act, 
 
 Left untrammelled to choose, 
 God's love and His Heaven 
 
 To retain or to lose. 
 Angels possessed this, but perverted 
 
 And of their own volition fell 
 From the topmost heights of the heavens 
 
 To the nethermost Hell, 
 Whence, on temptation's voice borne, 
 
 Into Eden it came, 
 And Man surrendered his birthright 
 
 To destruction and shame • 
 But, ere the full measure 
 
 Of his ruin was wrought, 
 All the energies of Deity 
 
 To the rescue were brought. 
 God saw and He pitied, 
 
 Then this promise He gave : 
 " Behold, once I created, 
 
 But now I will save, — 
 Save from the blackness 
 
 Of carnal night. 
 Save in the majesty 
 
 Of my Godhead's might, 
 Save from the doom 
 
 Of mortal strife, 
 17 
 
194 IMMORTALITY TO HELL. 
 
 Save by the power 
 
 Of an endless life ; 
 Save, yea, in all respects worthy 
 
 The Daysman shall be, 
 For I lay hold on one 
 
 "Who's Almighty to free, 
 One whom my Justice 
 
 Doth accept in Man's place., 
 One all sufficient 
 
 To atone for a race, 
 One upon whom 
 
 The debt now is laid, 
 One who assumes it 
 
 And will see it all paid, 
 One who will ransom, 
 
 And, having purchased, will be 
 A sure guide to lead 
 
 Through the lowlands to me ; 
 And while Death hath dominion, 
 
 And the Grave, too, shall reign. 
 They but refine from the dross 
 
 And doth cleanse from the stain ; 
 For in them, and through them, 
 
 The price goes before 
 That my love all doth purchase 
 
 And my Heaven restore." 
 And though it required an eternal ofi'cring 
 
IMMORTALITY TO HELL. 195 
 
 To thus redeem from the loss, 
 Though the way led through flesh 
 
 And by a manger and cross, 
 Though it bowed down the heavens 
 
 And made vacant His throne, 
 Yet in His own all-holy person 
 
 'Twas accomplished alone. 
 Amazing humiliation, 
 
 Condescension sublime, 
 This self-abnegation 
 
 Of the Sovereign Divine ; 
 Marvel of marvels, 
 
 E'en in angelic ken, 
 God Almighty descendeth 
 
 To the rescue of men ! 
 Not, however, in the plenitudes 
 
 Of a Creator's fame, 
 Not in the sublimit}' 
 
 Of the Euler's name, 
 Not in the prowess 
 
 Of Jehovah wroth, — 
 "With the chariot of Israel 
 
 And the horsemen thereof," — 
 Not in the van 
 
 Of a heavenly train. 
 Illumed with the wonders 
 
 Of eternity's reign. 
 
196 IMMORTALITY TO HELL. 
 
 Not e'en 'midst the suit 
 
 Which a vassal brings, 
 Much less with the retinue 
 
 Of the " King of Kings ;" 
 But forth from the panoply 
 
 Of Omnipotent might, 
 Out of the effulgence 
 
 Of its blinding light. 
 Dropping the symbols 
 
 Of Almighty sway, 
 Casting the vestments 
 
 Of Godhead away, 
 Laying aside 
 
 An eternal crown, 
 From all dominion 
 
 Stepping down. 
 Unattended, 
 
 All alone, 
 The measureless altitudes 
 
 Of infinitude's throne. 
 Before archangels' 
 
 Astonished gaze, 
 Immortal princes 
 
 In bewildered daze, 
 'Twixt flaming seats 
 
 Of startled seraphim. 
 Through the wondering ranks 
 
IMMORTALITY TO HELL. 197 
 
 Of the cherubim, 
 'Midst celestial hosts 
 
 In mute surj^rise, 
 Legions of angels 
 
 "With dazzled eyes, 
 From rank to rank 
 
 Ho downward wends, 
 Order by order 
 
 Still descends 
 'Long the lists and files 
 
 Of the heavenly glories, 
 By the principalities and powers 
 
 Of immensity's stories, 
 'Cross the domains 
 
 Of world-thronged space, 
 O'er the wilds 
 
 Where meteors race, 
 Into the realms 
 
 Of finite birth, 
 By the planet's course 
 
 He reaches Earth. 
 Calls not the bivouac 
 
 From its "hills of night" 
 To yield attendance 
 
 On the "Prince of Light," 
 Awakes not its spheres, 
 
 In anthems sublime, 
 17* 
 
198 IMMORTALITY TO HELL. 
 
 To publish the coming 
 
 Of the Sovereign Divine, 
 Unchains not its elements 
 
 To thunder abroad 
 The incarnate advent 
 
 Of their Creator God, 
 Impresseth not to His service 
 
 The orb of its day. 
 Takes but a star 
 
 To gild Deity's way, 
 And, in the gleam 
 
 This herald throws. 
 Still down and down 
 
 And down He goes, 
 Past imperial palace 
 
 And ro^-al dome, 
 Princely residence 
 
 And viceregal home, 
 Avoiding governor's mansion 
 
 And templed wall. 
 The sanhedrim's court 
 
 And the judgment-hall. 
 Aside alike from the noble's 
 
 And the fellah's door. 
 The shepherd's tent 
 
 With its native floor. 
 E'en away from the inn ; 
 
IMMORTALITY TO HELL. 199 
 
 Then, gracious God, where? 
 Behold, in a stable, — 
 
 Life's Sun riseth there ; 
 The Omnipotent Suzerain became 
 
 Of an outlawed clan, 
 "God's Messiah" 
 
 A lonely Man, 
 The "Centre of Being" 
 
 Was given birth, 
 The " Source of Knowledge" 
 
 Learned of Earth, 
 Immensity's Proprietor 
 
 Went unfed, 
 Creation's Builder 
 
 Had no bed, 
 The " God of Angels" 
 
 AVept alone, 
 The " King of Heaven" 
 
 Had no home; 
 Infinitude's Almoner 
 
 Must need endure, 
 For God's Eternal Son 
 
 Was poor; 
 Nature's Upholder 
 
 No succor found, 
 The "Judge of the Universe" 
 
 Was a prisoner bound, 
 
200 IMMORTALITY TO HELL. 
 
 The '^ Lord of Hosts" 
 
 Was mocked, defied, 
 And the ''Prince of Peace" 
 
 Was crucified ; 
 The "Ancient of Days" 
 
 Was clothed with Time, 
 Jehovah Infinite 
 
 Did flesh entwine, 
 Omniscient Deity 
 
 Was taught to see, 
 The "Ever-Living" 
 
 Began to be; 
 The "Ahiiighty Creator" 
 
 Had a natal morn, 
 The "Eternal Father" 
 
 As a child was born, 
 The great " I Am" 
 
 Drew mortal breath, 
 And the " Fount of Life" 
 
 Expired in Death. 
 He celebrated His advent 
 
 'Midst the brute kind, a stranger; 
 A homeless babe of penury, 
 
 Was hedged with danger; 
 For His very life 
 
 Was forced to flee 
 The mountain-pass. 
 
IMMORTALITY TO HELL. 201 
 
 By night, to Galilee ; 
 Endured a childhood of hardship 
 
 Which passeth belief, 
 Was "A Man of Sorrows, 
 
 And acquainted with grief;" 
 Was mocked by the might}-, 
 
 By the wise laughed to scorn, — 
 A despised Nazarene, 
 
 E'en of Bethlehem born ; 
 Was jeered by the populace, 
 
 Called impostor and fraud, 
 " A Wine-bibber and Glutton" 
 
 Who claimed to be God ; 
 Was derided by princelings, 
 
 '• Friend of Sinners" was styled, 
 By the nobles traduced 
 
 And the masses reviled ; 
 Was persecuted by the priesthood. 
 
 By the elders contemned, 
 By hirelings convicted. 
 
 And the rulers condemned ; 
 Was set upon by the multitude, 
 
 By the mob was misused, 
 By the soldiery scourged. 
 
 And the rabble abused ; 
 Was spit upon by a creature, 
 
 By a friend was denied, 
 
202 IMMORTALITY TO HELL. 
 
 By a robber supplanted, 
 
 And a felon defied; 
 Was deserted b}^ followers, 
 
 From kindred affection hurled. 
 The prey of a disciple 
 
 And the victim of a world. 
 Depths of depravity! 
 
 O Hell, can it be 
 That this is the ransom 
 
 Which alone saves from thee? 
 Heights of the heavens, 
 
 What an infinite price. 
 When God Eternal Himself 
 
 Was the sacrifice I 
 Oh, how the wonder deepens 
 
 Into unutterable sublimity 
 Before this vicarious mission 
 
 Of God's humanity! 
 Well might immensity marvel. 
 
 And the hierarchies of eternity be dazed, 
 And the watcher of Earth fall prostrate, 
 
 Transfixed with awe, as he gazed 
 On that crowning spectacle august 
 
 Of Jehovah's redemptive plan. 
 As it laid a God on the altar, 
 
 A penal offering for Man. 
 For Man ? ay, and he the rebel 
 
IMMORTALITY TO HELL. 203 
 
 Against the one who gave, 
 The defamer, persecutor, crucifier 
 
 Of Him who came to save. 
 Surely the Divine humility 
 
 Must here have kissed the floor, 
 For e'en Ahnighty condescension 
 
 Could humble and abase no more : 
 Earth's salutations to its Eedeemer came 
 
 In a stable stall of oxen breath, 
 And 'midst a convict train it bade adieu 
 
 With a felon's cross and a malefactor's death. 
 Eternal Justice ! 
 
 Where were thy lightnings sheathed ? 
 Avenging Godhead ! 
 
 By whom came this guilt reprieved ? 
 Hosts of the Infinite ! 
 
 Whither garrisoned thou didst not see? 
 And what power, O Shechinah, 
 
 Withheld the stroke by thee? 
 And yet, with no eye to pity, 
 
 No friend to cheer apace, 
 Refused the succor of Heaven 
 
 And denied His Father's face ; 
 But surrounded by foes malignant. 
 
 The butt of insulting voice, 
 He yielded Himself in atonement 
 
 Of His own, His Godhead's, choice. 
 
204 IMMORTALITY TO HELL. 
 
 But, oh, the eternal import 
 
 Of this scene of Deicide ! 
 'Tis bridging the infinite chasm 
 
 Which holiness and sin divide. 
 Oh, the everlasting significance 
 
 Of these expiring groans ! 
 They mean that perdition's dungeons 
 
 Are changing to Heaven's thrones. 
 Oh, the inestimable conquests 
 
 Achieved in this fleeting breath ! 
 'Tis robbing the Grave of victory 
 
 And plucking the sting from Death. 
 And oh, this crimson torrent 
 
 Which from His side doth flow! 
 'Tis cleaving a passage to glory, 
 
 While it floods the road to Avoe. 
 But hark ! " 'Tis finished," the Conquerer cries, 
 
 "Guilt's captives now are free. 
 And God henceforth is love again, 
 
 For all wrath hath been spent on me. 
 Henceforth an exhaustless fountain floweth hero 
 
 Which cleanseth from every stain. 
 Where all the dying of the Earth 
 
 May life and Heaven regain. 
 Henceforth a deathless beacon's set 
 
 On this topmost hill of Time, 
 And on the road which leads to life 
 
IMMORTALITY TO HELL. 205 
 
 Its light shall ever shine ; 
 While henceforth to Earth's latest hour 
 
 This cross shall point the way 
 To the rich possessions of my love 
 
 Which my blood makes free this day. 
 E'en 10 the mansions of the just 
 
 I go now to prepare, 
 And henceforth a single glance this way 
 
 Will enthrone the vilest there." 
 Heaven, transported, heard the cry 
 
 Of a world redeemed from sin. 
 And the everlasting doors uplifted were 
 
 To let the King triumphant in, 
 Who came in pomp and majesty 
 
 Back to His sovereign reign. 
 With every foe beneath His feet. 
 
 E'en thou in His captive train ; 
 And there, above all heights exalted, 
 
 Earth's ransomed ranged before, 
 He takes up His royal diadem 
 
 And studs it Avith jewels o'er; 
 And there throughout a glorious eternity 
 
 Shall the throne-room's arches ring 
 With the " Glory, glory, hallelujahs !" 
 
 Which these redeemed will sing, — 
 Sing in transporting strains triumphant, 
 
 Surpassing e'en seraphs' powers, 
 18 
 
206 IMMORTALITY TO HELL. 
 
 " Thrice blessed ever be His blood, 
 
 For its wonders all are ours." 
 E'en now a host hath gathered there, 
 
 Yet on and on they come 
 To join the Conqueror in the feast 
 
 Of eternal victories won ; 
 While ever, ever through Death's waste 
 
 The Master loud doth call, 
 " Behold, O Earth, Life's banquet waits, 
 
 With tables spread for all." 
 E'en for the vilest of the vile, 
 
 The basest of Adam's race, 
 Ay, e'en for a Saviour's murderers 
 
 Is here reserved a place. 
 " Only accept," the Host doth cry, 
 
 " The bidding which I give ; 
 Come to this marriage feast of love, 
 
 Here sup with me and live : 
 Live for eternity here at home 
 
 In the Heaven of heavens with me, 
 An immortal, glorified purchase of the blood 
 
 Which in Time I shed for thee." 
 Ah, to the heights God gives His presence. 
 
 Still the depths His wonders know. 
 From the heavens above His glory shines 
 
 And His justice reigns below ; 
 E'en to the confines of immensity 
 
IMMORTALITY TO HELL. 207 
 
 His goodness doth provide, 
 His band sustains the rolling spheres 
 
 And doth the planets guide; 
 While His love, enduring, boundless 
 
 As the eternity it enfolds, 
 Extendeth to all infinitude 
 
 And its every atom holds; 
 But for rebellious, sin-cursed Earth — 
 
 A speck in His empire wide — 
 Was reserved the marvel of His reign, 
 
 Since there for Man He died ; 
 And 3-et, despite this matchless ransom, 
 
 Unmindful how erst he fell, 
 The creature follows yet his will, 
 
 And, an ingrate, sinks to Hell ; 
 For in all His eternal vastness, 
 
 With the might which is its goal, 
 E'en God, without the sinner's sanction, 
 
 Cannot save a single soul. 
 But why should I to thee 
 
 This stupendous tale unfold, 
 With its infinite conception 
 
 And mysteries manifold? 
 Or why, to an object 
 
 So abandoned as thee. 
 E'en allude to the blessedness 
 
 Transcendent in me ? 
 
208 IMMORTALITY TO HELL. 
 
 Surely not to excite thine envy, 
 
 But only to let thee see 
 How utterly lost to self and God 
 
 Are all who go to thee ; 
 Not because of might or aught enticing 
 
 That could delude or Earth hath craved, 
 But simply that the sinner chooseth 
 
 To be lost instead of saved ; 
 For no creature ever reached thy gates 
 
 From the range of entreaty's voice, 
 But, headstrong, persistent, went to Death 
 
 Of his own free will and choice ; 
 No mortal yet's been swept away 
 
 By thine all-engulfing tide, 
 But sank forever 'neath its wave 
 
 The veriest suicide ; 
 And not a single solitary soul 
 
 Will ever feel thy gloom 
 Till first 't has trampled atoning blood. 
 
 And who then may mourn its doom? 
 Truly, Heaven hath no regrets for these. 
 
 Nor will e'er the ransomed sigh ; 
 The "light of life" will only brighten 
 
 As these falling shadows die; 
 Only will the song of triumph 
 
 Its' full power and range attain 
 When the last of foes is captive 
 
IMMORTALITY TO HELL. 209 
 
 And the rebels all are slain. 
 Then, with naught to mar the celebration, 
 
 Naught to slight redeeming love, 
 Ever grandly through the cycles 
 
 Will life's anthems swell above, 
 Nameless, peerless, priceless 
 
 As the object they adore, 
 Glorious, boundless, endless 
 
 As the source from whence they pour. 
 Life! measureless and unwasting 
 
 As the Fount's eternal flow, 
 Freely, fully by its Author offered 
 
 To each erring child of woe ; 
 Love ! all-sufficient, yea, and anxious 
 
 That the lost of Earth be saved. 
 And that ere thy gates stood open 
 
 Solely came of wills depraved ; 
 Ay, more : at thy portals e'en 
 
 This love e'er stands 
 With pierced side 
 
 And bleeding hands, 
 Calling by name 
 
 Each passer-by : 
 '•Ho! ye blood-bought, 
 
 Why thus die?" 
 No, God never damns 
 
 What He creates ; 
 
 18* 
 
210 IMMORTALITY TO HELL. 
 
 Men, like angels, 
 
 Choose their fates; 
 Death makes no change 
 
 For good or ill, 
 The sinner is 
 
 The sinner still; 
 Hence what he wills 
 
 In Time to be 
 He carries with him 
 
 To eternity ; 
 Carries his foibles 
 
 Great and small, 
 Base propensities 
 
 And habits all ; 
 Carries his envy, 
 
 Malice, scorn, 
 The sordid tastes 
 
 Of his passions born ; 
 Carries his filthy 
 
 And foul desires, 
 Loathsome appetites 
 
 With consuming fires ; 
 Carries his hatred 
 
 Of the pure and just. 
 Arrogance and avarice. 
 
 Greed and lust; 
 Carries the stains 
 
IMMORTALITY TO HELL. 211 
 
 Of his sinful life, 
 The wounds and scars 
 
 Of unhallowed strife ; 
 Carries the trappings 
 
 Of his secret shame, 
 The unmasked blackness 
 
 Of an apostate name ; 
 Carries his infamy, 
 
 Guilt, and crime. 
 Contempt of Heaven 
 
 And things divine ; 
 Carries his every sin. 
 
 With its blight and dearth, 
 And is just in the future 
 
 As he left the Earth, 
 Only possessed 
 
 Of what Death hedged hero, — 
 The limitless license 
 
 Of a deathless sphere. 
 If, then, such be thy subjects. 
 
 How needless to tell 
 That 'twixt thee and me 
 
 Their choice would be Hell ! 
 For how could such ingrates. 
 
 Base rejecters of love, 
 Be ever content 
 
 In its mansions above? 
 
212 IMMORTALITY TO HELL. 
 
 How, think you, such beings, 
 
 "Who delight to profane, 
 Could e'er eternally sing 
 
 Of a Eedeemer slain ? 
 Or what kind of manna 
 
 Could Paradise give 
 On which these polluted 
 
 E'en a moment could live ? 
 Or how could tbese childi-en 
 
 Of sin's lowlands and night 
 E'er endure an eternity 
 
 On the mountains of light ? 
 Wh}', its very airs would be stifling 
 
 And its calms would oppress, 
 Its pursuits would be torture 
 
 And its joys would distress, 
 Its brightness would burn 
 
 And its paeans would grind, 
 Its holiness blister. 
 
 While its glories would blind ; 
 Not a single vale in its borders 
 
 Would offer repose, 
 And all of their sojourn 
 
 Would be burdened with woes ; 
 For of the country's blest millions 
 
 Not one would they know, 
 And 'midst a city of palaces 
 
IMMORTALITY TO HELL. 213 
 
 Have no place to go. 
 God, therefore, not of" wrath but compassion, 
 
 In thee doth provide 
 A vast eternal cavern 
 
 Where all such can reside, 
 Have life as they wish it. 
 
 Untrammelled and free. 
 In the fathomless depths 
 
 Of depravity's sea ; 
 Ever deeper to sink there 
 
 As the cycles on wend. 
 Undisturbed by the prospect 
 
 Of reaching an end. 
 Such, then, O Hell, 's thy boasted empii-e, 
 
 Thus thy realms perdition span, 
 The doom heritage of rebellious light. 
 
 But mercy's legacy to defiant Man. 
 
XII. 
 
 ^rager of Mm. 
 
I 
 
 Then, as each rebuked, despairing shadow 
 
 From her presence forth did flee, 
 With a mien benign, majestic, 
 
 Life's exponent turned to me, 
 And in tones the Muse might envy. 
 
 Such melody thrilled their gentle flow, 
 "Come, my child, come closer," said she; 
 
 " What is it that thou wouldst know ? 
 Hast thou longings after rest? 
 
 Seek to be forever blest ? 
 If so, then what's thy behest? 
 
 What of me wouldst thou request ?" 
 
 19 217 
 
PRAYER OF MAN. 
 
 Oh, I said, I'm but a waifling 
 
 Cast upon a cruel world, 
 Conscious only of existence, 
 
 'Mid its scenes of sorrow hurled ; 
 Nothing but a bit of wreckage 
 
 Tossed about on waves of life, 
 Battling ever 'gainst disaster, 
 
 Overwhelmed in seas of strife ; 
 At the best a wretched exile, 
 
 Pilgrim in a foreign land, 
 Wasted in a hostile country, 
 
 Famished on a desert strand, 
 All without my will or sanction. 
 
 And in which I've had no voice, 
 Given form and place and being 
 
 All regardless of my choice ; 
 Ignorant even where I came from, 
 
 How I live, or whither go. 
 Ah, that of all doth most concern me. 
 
 That's the thing I fain would know; 
 
 219 
 
220 FRAYER OF MAN. 
 
 Here I find myself existent 
 
 In a low-down twilight sphere 
 By its shades and gloom enveloped, 
 
 Grovelling 'neath the slavish fear ; 
 Of its blinded sight begotten, 
 
 Of its mysteries given birth, 
 Binding fast with carnal fetters 
 
 Mortal bondsmen to the Earth, 
 Whence no faith provideth pinions, 
 
 Naught inspires the soul to flight, 
 . But each chain-tug of the captive 
 
 Only brings a deeper night 
 To this understanding finite, 
 
 Close immured in fleshen walls. 
 Where no paean e'er resoundeth. 
 
 And but one deliverer calls ; 
 From the black-damp of the dungeon, 
 
 From the pressure of its chain. 
 From the bars 'gainst which the spirit 
 
 Casts and breaks itself in vain ; 
 From this dismal gloom surrounding. 
 
 With its heavy stifling air, 
 From its noxious breath outpouring 
 
 Withering blight on all that's fair ; 
 From these lurid skies o'erhansxins:. 
 
 By the tempest rent and torn. 
 From the darkness ne'er uplifted, 
 
PRAYER OF MAN. 221 
 
 From this night which hath no morn ; 
 From these unrequited labors, 
 
 From the toil which leaves a stain, 
 From this grief-rewarded effort 
 
 With its recompense of pain ; 
 From these broken, shattered idols 
 
 In the temple of my love. 
 From my hopes all worn returning, 
 
 Tired of wing, like Noah's dove ; 
 From the cares which here beset me, 
 
 From the ills that press me sore, 
 Piercing e'en to being's centre, 
 
 Burning to my bosom's core ; 
 From the breakers round me surging. 
 
 From the tide-wave's threat'ning roll, 
 Battering down the outer casement, 
 
 Rushing frenzied on the soul, 
 Only one escape doth offer. 
 
 That as horrid as to stay, 
 Dissolution's portal 3-awning 
 
 O'er the vortex of decay. 
 Still with hope all crushed, abandoned, 
 
 In mine anguish day by day 
 Anxious yearn I for the freedom 
 
 That will loose this bond of clay. 
 That will open wide the prison 
 
 Where I've sighed and languished long, 
 19* 
 
222 PRAYER OF MAN. 
 
 Eend its bars and bolts asunder, 
 
 Sever from its fleshen thong; 
 That will end my lease of sorrow 
 
 In this plague-infested hall, 
 With its pain-racked frame and timbers, 
 
 Eeady any hour to fall ; 
 That will let me out this earth-house, 
 
 Beat upon by every blast, 
 On the sands of Time receding 
 
 To an all-effacing past; 
 That will rescue from this island, 
 
 Far removed from passing sail, 
 With its solitudes unbroken 
 
 Save by ocean roar and gale ; 
 That will call me from my exile 
 
 In this alien land unkept, 
 Where the ages all have languished 
 
 And each careworn pilgrim wept; 
 That will break this fever fitful. 
 
 With its feeble, fluttering breath, 
 From it all release and save me. 
 
 Even though it be by Death. 
 A ghastly source of freedom, truly. 
 
 Yet what else hath life to cheer? 
 Earth is but a horror chamber, 
 
 Nothing's worth the living here; 
 Nothing worthy e'en the having, 
 
PRATER OF MAN. 223 
 
 Aside the labor to attain, 
 Nothing worth the bare possession, 
 
 Much less effort to sustain ; 
 Nothing in this cursed Earth-land 
 
 Save duration filled with blight, 
 Straggling rays of hope which endeth 
 
 In despair's pervading night; 
 Little scraps of pleasure floating 
 
 On unbounded seas of woe, 
 Patches small of calm o'erdotting 
 
 Howling wastes where monsoons blow ; 
 "Wasted springs of peace commingling 
 
 With the tides of mortal strife, 
 Di'oppings few of comfort sinking 
 
 In the sands of human life, 
 Barely seen as they are passing, 
 
 Hardly felt and little known. 
 E'en unto a vapor likened, 
 
 Scarcely fashioned till it's flown ; 
 Scarcely a scene of beauty outlined 
 
 Till it fades before the eye, 
 And no thing of joy o'ertaken 
 
 Ere it findeth wings to fly ; 
 Hardly a sip of sweetness tasted, 
 
 Then the draught doth change to gall, 
 And no loving structure raised 
 
 But 'tis shaken to its fall ; 
 
224 PRAYER OF MAN. 
 
 Barely a touch of aught that's lovely, 
 
 When the hidden thorn appears, 
 While the mirth that wreathes the features 
 
 All too soon is bathed in tears. 
 Earth's delights are therefore phantoms, 
 
 Mundane trusts reposed in clay, 
 Finite bliss the veriest mirage 
 
 Drifting o'er life's wastes away, 
 Glorious Edens of the fancy. 
 
 Like its castles, wondrous fair. 
 But whene'er I seek the substance, 
 
 Lo! I find 'tis all of air; 
 Fruitful Canaans in prospective, 
 
 Eich in harvests plain to see. 
 But my footsteps press the desert 
 
 Burning where these seemed to be ; 
 Bashan's vales, in contemplation 
 
 Cool, inviting to the mind. 
 But of strife and desolation 
 
 Are its valleys left behind, 
 Like the happy days of stor}' 
 
 In the by and by for me. 
 Or the ships with treasure laden 
 
 Sailing to me o'er the sea. 
 Are these glows in Time deceptive, 
 
 Illusive mists upon the sands. 
 Spectral streams which only madden 
 
PRAYER OF MAN. 225 
 
 Thirsty hosts in arid lands ; 
 "Where the things the most substantial 
 
 Are the very first undone, 
 And the founts that seem exhaustless 
 
 Prove to be the soonest run. 
 All is transient, naught enduring, 
 Change is stamped on all below, 
 E'en existence, like the flood's wave. 
 
 Leaves but a memory of its flow, — 
 Solely a thought of the seconds 
 Which in every heart-beat fl}^, 
 To the moments brief and fleeting. 
 And the hour hath hastened by; 
 Merely a breath of the morning, 
 
 And noon-tide hurries fast. 
 Then the after-glare and evening shade, 
 
 And thus the day is past. 
 Only a glimpse of the spring-time 
 
 Till summer's heats are on. 
 Through autumn's fading to winter, 
 
 And then the year is gone ; 
 A vanishing vision of childhood. 
 
 As youth towards manhood tends, 
 A world of care, then tottering steps 
 
 To where the journey ends; 
 A season brief of waking, 
 
 Of slumber a trifle more, 
 P 
 
226 PRAYER OF MAN. 
 
 From the toil a little resting, 
 
 Then the troubled dream is o'er; 
 A dweller only in the present, 
 
 The past all gone before, 
 And nothing ever of the future 
 
 Save its knockings at the door ; 
 An animated bubble called being 
 
 Dangling at the end of breath. 
 Life amid life's ruins. 
 
 Existence in the arms of Death ; 
 Groping among the sepulchres 
 
 Of ancestors and sires, 
 By kindred wreck environed, 
 
 'Tis born and then expires, 
 Sinks to the mould that bare it, 
 
 A crumbling earthen crust. 
 Through the night of putrefaction 
 
 Back to its natal dust; 
 A weary, fitful journey 
 
 Through scenes of carnal gloom. 
 O'er a rugged pathway leading 
 
 From the cradle to the tomb ; 
 A thorn-strewn, stony highway 
 
 Trod by the flesh-bound slave, 
 Yoked to his own mortality 
 
 And hastening to the Grave; 
 In the doleful caravan 
 
PRAYER OF MAN. 227 
 
 Of earthly years, 
 Freighted with humanity's 
 
 Hopes and fears, 
 O'er sterile waste, 
 
 Through vales forlorn, 
 A dreary pilgrimage 
 
 To an untried bourne ; 
 A rough, tempestuous voyage 
 
 On an angry wave-lashed sea, 
 O'er fell wastes of waters stretching 
 
 Through Time to eternity; 
 A dismal outward passage, 
 
 The main by no ship reerossed, 
 Borne under by the surge's roll 
 
 And high on the billows tossed ; 
 An atom of human frailty 
 On an ocean wild afloat. 
 Essaying to breast the maelstrom 
 
 In a stoved and sinking boat ; 
 A heavy-laden, laboring craft, 
 
 Fierce swept the gale before, 
 A water-logged, dismantled hulk 
 
 Drifting on an unknown shore ; 
 A bitter, wasting conflict 
 
 'Gainst numberless assailants rife, 
 Beginning with the birth of Man 
 And waged through all his life ; 
 
228 PR AVER OF MAN. 
 
 A fierce, unequal struggle 
 
 Which hath for each a part, 
 And rageth in the kingly breast 
 
 As well the peasant's heart ; 
 A M'arfare every day renewed 
 
 The mortal's years along. 
 Till sobs become his war-cry 
 
 And groans his battle-song; 
 For Grave rest's the only trophy 
 
 Which doth inspire " the line," 
 And Death the only victor 
 
 On the battle-fields of Time. 
 Still, e'en this is life's fair vision : 
 
 What then can the dark side be. 
 With its depths of human sorrows. 
 
 Fathomless as the -^gean Sea? 
 When the strong of Earth grow weary 
 
 'Neath the burdens of the load, 
 What a tale could pain-racked pilgrims 
 
 Tell of trials 'long the road ? 
 If Time's favored ones are famished 
 
 'Midst luxurious ease and gold. 
 What would be the poor man's story 
 
 In the fight 'gainst want and cold ? 
 And when e'en the world's exalted 
 
 Find but misery in renown, 
 Who may name the waves of anguish 
 
PRAYER OF MAN. 229 
 
 That o'erwhelm the trodden-down ? 
 And yet, 'mid all this ruin, 
 
 My soul seeks a higher plane, 
 A more substantial heritage 
 
 And a more exalted name ; 
 It longs for a land of freedom. 
 
 Exempt from all mortal claims, 
 That hath no carnal rendings 
 
 And knows no fleshen chains ; 
 It yearns for a realm eternal, 
 
 Uncorrupted by decay. 
 Where reigns in fadeless splendors 
 
 The joys of endless day ; 
 It sighs for a haven peaceful 
 
 Beyond these swelling tides, 
 Where, 'midst the calms of stormless seas, 
 
 A glorious rest abides ; 
 While here within my bosom 
 
 A something whispers o'er, 
 "These desires ai-e only foretastes 
 
 Of what doth lie before. 
 Only the faint outlinings 
 
 Of nameless things to be, 
 Eeflections dim of wonders grand 
 
 These ej-es shall one day see." 
 To like effect there comes a voice 
 
 From that revealed Divine, 
 20 
 
230 PRATER OF MAN. 
 
 And oh, what raptures these inspire 
 
 In this i^oor heart of mine! 
 For if in truth such be the case, 
 
 What need I further care ? 
 How insignificant all ills of Time 
 
 When classed with glories there! 
 What trivial things these sorrows are, 
 
 Which oft seem mountain hio-h I 
 When contrasted with the recompense 
 
 That awaiteth them on high I 
 How abject mean this slavish fear 
 
 Which faltereth in the fight, 
 Before a coronation morn 
 
 On the palaced hills of light! 
 What veriest play this earthly toil, 
 
 How light this mortal load. 
 When Life Eternal's the reward 
 
 And Heaven doth end the road! 
 Or what a peaceful, blessed calm 
 
 Pervades the ocean's roar. 
 Around the bark, however frail, 
 
 Bound for a deathless shore ! 
 But anon doubt-shadows gather. 
 
 Unbelief doth cloud mine eyes, 
 While 'midst contentious reasonings 
 
 The hope-ray, drooping, dies 
 And leaves me in the darkness 
 
PRAYER OF MAN. 231 
 
 To grope as best I can, 
 A creature of despair begot 
 
 By the sophistries of Man ; 
 For while I fain would heed the voice 
 
 Which e'er through my spirit rings, 
 And accept as truth the teachings 
 
 Which the page of Scripture brings, 
 Still this limited conception earthy 
 
 Is powerless to defend, 
 And must succumb to marvels 
 
 Which it cannot comprehend ; 
 And thus amid the mistings 
 
 I'm a drifting wreck at sea, 
 Engulfed by every mystery 
 
 Of life and Death and thee ; 
 And hence I turn to human lore 
 
 To illume my darkened mind, 
 Only in gloom to realize 
 
 I'm guided by the blind ; 
 For e'en the sage and wise man. 
 
 With the philosophers of the race. 
 In essaying to solve these problems 
 
 Have lost themselves in space. 
 And have with naught returned again 
 
 To supply these crying needs. 
 Save indeed some theories base. 
 
 With numberless conflicting creeds 
 
232 PRAYER OF MAN. 
 
 Which, though in main may be of truth, 
 
 And point the upper way, 
 Are yet so contradictory 
 
 As to lead the soul astray; 
 For while most all men recognize 
 
 A deathless part within, 
 And through some help extraneous see 
 
 The only hope for sin, 
 Still, some sects, ignoring this, 
 
 In worldly wMsdom wise 
 Declare that Man must work his way 
 
 In trembling to the skies; 
 And while Almighty sovereignty 
 
 Doth alone on God devolve, 
 To fellow-worms they doth accord 
 
 The functions to absolve ; 
 Others still do boldly teach 
 
 That religion's in the form, 
 And only by the ritual 
 
 Is Life Eternal born ; 
 That church rites, wnth its polity, 
 
 Is the only leaven rife. 
 And hence its ceremonials 
 
 Are essentials unto life ; 
 Another yet doth ever strive 
 
 To let the mortal know 
 That all there is of punishment 
 
PR AVER OF MAN. 23c 
 
 Doth here exist below; 
 That, despite this moral turpitude, 
 
 This sin-guilt under ban, 
 A glorious future doth exist 
 
 For universal Man ; 
 While, opposed to this, another holds 
 
 That they God's chosen be, 
 And only those of Abraham's seed 
 
 E'er reach the jasper sea; 
 That the Christian's hope is all a mj-th, 
 
 The Messiah yet to come. 
 And by a firm belief in this 
 
 Their work for Heaven is done. 
 Besides all these, an hundred more, 
 
 As complex as the mind. 
 Construct a maze of doctrine 
 
 That stultifies Mankind ; 
 While surrounding all vast heathendom. 
 
 Embracing most the race, 
 With the earliest known theologies 
 
 Doth also have a place. 
 And this hath a thousand deities, 
 
 With as many systems, too. 
 And 'midst this host who ma}^ decide 
 
 Which one of them is true? 
 But if one's right, — and onl}^ one 
 
 Could be of all the throng, — 
 20* 
 
234 PRAYER OF MAN. 
 
 Surely that one's inherent truth 
 
 Would right the others' wrong ; 
 And if on good and bad alike 
 
 Falls sunshine and the rain, 
 Verily this wisdom would exist 
 
 That all men could obtain ; 
 For beacon ne'er in Time was set 
 
 To guide one favored bark, 
 Leaving all other craft to strand 
 
 And flounder in the dark ; 
 The sun must either be obscured 
 
 Or else on all must shine ; 
 It can't illume another's way 
 
 And cast a shade on mine ; 
 But that these shadows do exist. 
 
 While some claim perfect light. 
 Is evidence incontestable 
 
 Of all-pervading night. 
 And thus it is some go so far 
 
 As even to maintain 
 That all these worlds uphold themselves 
 
 And know no sovereign's reign ; 
 That o'er these wide domains of space. 
 
 Throughout creation broad, 
 The veriest chance doth rule supreme, 
 
 And Nature hath no Grod ; 
 That from the Earth like grass we spring. 
 
PRAYER OF MAN. 235 
 
 Like grass to fade away, 
 That soul and body together tread 
 
 The wine-press of decay ; 
 That all this talk of future bliss 
 
 In a glorious Heaven with thee, 
 As well the tales of endless pains 
 
 Through being's infinity. 
 Are but creations of the mind, 
 
 Fantasies of the brain, 
 Launched forth upon humanity 
 
 For profit and for gain. 
 And this the blackness whence I came 
 
 In trembling spirit here, 
 By saving need oppressed, o'ercome, 
 
 And crushed with mortal fear; 
 But now that mine eyes hath seen 
 
 The splendors of thy throne, 
 Raised to a blest futurity 
 
 Which may be made mine own. 
 And since that mine ears hath heard 
 
 Of the life revealed this day. 
 The only want I e'er shall feel 
 
 Is guidance by the way. 
 I therefore ask of wisdom 
 
 Which boundless dwells in thee. 
 Knowledge suiScient to be wise 
 
 For all eternity ; 
 
236 PRAYER OF MAN. 
 
 I seek of that light effulgent 
 
 Which beams o'er thy realms alone, 
 A single ray to mark the road 
 
 And be my beacon home ; 
 While at thine hand a life-chart, 
 
 With a compass, I implore, 
 A pilot, too, to bring my bark 
 
 To an immortal shore ; 
 And since in truth a Heaven's above 
 
 To which the righteous fly, 
 And while in fact a Hell awaits 
 
 The wicked when they die, 
 Show me, I pray thee, my light, 
 
 The upper-leading way. 
 The road that to a deathless strand 
 
 Doth lead, through Death, from clay; 
 Teach me to live, while yet on Earth 
 
 The years may for me run, 
 In manner pure, sublime, and true, 
 
 That to thee then I'll come 
 And find in glory by thy side, 
 
 Through all the cycles blest, 
 The "living waters" framed in seas 
 
 Of Heaven's eternal rest ; 
 Lead me gently by the hand 
 
 'Long a world's alluring wares, 
 Safely my footsteps ever guide 
 
I 
 
 PRAYER OF MAN. 237 
 
 Past all its traps and suares; 
 Direct me o'er life's tangled road, 
 
 Hold fast my helm at sea, 
 Full equip me for the fight. 
 
 And may it end in thee. 
 
XIII. 
 
 ImmortalitB to Mm. 
 
IMMORTALITY TO MAN, 
 
 Oh, thou poor benighted earthling, 
 
 Child of sorrow, sin, and shame. 
 In the bonds of guilt enslaved, 
 
 Branded with a felon's name, 
 Yet withal the heir presumptive 
 
 To a kingdom in the skies. 
 Doomed to Death, but yet retaining 
 
 That within which never dies, 
 Glad am I to learn thy story 
 
 And to hear thy spirit's cry. 
 For of need must come the pinions 
 
 That will bear thy soul on high ; 
 Only he who seeks the fountain 
 
 Stoopeth ever at its brink, 
 While alone the parched and thirsty 
 
 Cometh to the wells to drink ; 
 Famished ones they are who cry out 
 
 For the satisfying bread. 
 And the heart must feel its hunger 
 
 Ere it asketh to be fed. 
 
 q 21 241 
 
242 IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 
 
 All the wisdom then existent, 
 
 E'en the light of Heaven's day, 
 Would for naught avail the pilgrim, 
 
 Lest indeed he sought the way ; 
 But to him through want inquiring, 
 
 Needless is it e'er to roam, 
 While of truths the first revealed 
 
 Is that Earth is not his home, — 
 Not the place of his abiding 
 
 Is this wrecked and storm-swept shore. 
 For, with Eden's bowers in ruins, 
 
 Hope of life for Time is o'er; 
 All that here could e'er sustain it 
 
 Hath departed with the wave. 
 And the only thing remaining 
 
 Is its journey to the Grave ; 
 Every force below doth deaden, 
 
 Outright kills, or wastes away, 
 Hence these realms have no conditions 
 
 Under which the soul could stay. 
 Too much mildew. 
 
 Too much blight, 
 Too much shadow, 
 
 Too much night, 
 Too much freezing, 
 
 Too much heat, 
 Too much rainfall, 
 
IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 243 
 
 Too much sleet, 
 Too much changing, 
 
 Too much flow, 
 Too much shifting, 
 
 Too much blow, 
 Too much misting, 
 
 Too much fog, 
 Too much marsh land, 
 
 Too much bog, 
 Too much desert, 
 
 Too much steep. 
 Too much jungle, 
 
 Too much deep. 
 Too much refuse. 
 
 Too much dross. 
 Too much lichen, 
 
 Too much moss. 
 Too much friction, 
 
 Too much rust. 
 Too much canker. 
 
 Too much dust. 
 Too much breaking, 
 
 Too much wear. 
 Too much rending, 
 
 Too much tear. 
 Too much blemish, 
 
 Too much stain, 
 
244 IMMORTALITY TO MAN.- 
 
 Too much trial, 
 
 Too much pain, 
 Too much striving, 
 
 Too much fray, 
 Too much crumbling, 
 
 Too much decay, 
 Too much Death 
 
 On this twilight sphere 
 For aught to attain 
 
 Perfection here. 
 Not enough of sunshine. 
 
 Not enough of calm. 
 Not enough of comfort. 
 
 Not enough of balm. 
 Not enough to strengthen, 
 
 Not enough to cheer. 
 Not enough that's open. 
 
 Not enough that's clear, 
 Not enough of morning. 
 
 Not enough of air. 
 Not enough that's beautiful, 
 
 Not enough that's fair, 
 Not enough of spring-time, 
 
 Not enough of bloom. 
 Not enough of altitude. 
 
 Not enough of room, 
 Not enough of freshness 
 
IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 245 
 
 Not enough of light, 
 Not enough that's joyous, 
 
 Not enough that's bright, 
 Not enough of melody. 
 
 Not enough of lays, 
 Not enough of rapture, 
 
 Not enough of praise. 
 Not enough of innocence, 
 
 Not enough of youth. 
 Not enough of blessedness, 
 
 Not enough of truth, 
 Not enough ennobling. 
 
 Not enough inspires. 
 Not enough that quickens, 
 
 Not enough that fires. 
 Not enough that's holy, 
 
 Not enough that's pure, 
 Not enough substantial, 
 
 Not enough secure, 
 Not enough enduring. 
 
 In all these realms so wide, 
 'Midst which a thing eternal 
 
 Could e'en in the flesh reside, 
 "Well enough for gi-asses 
 
 Whose life is but a day, 
 Well enough for flowerets 
 
 That bud to fade away, 
 21* 
 
24G IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 
 
 Well enough for dew-drops 
 
 Which, glistening, disappear, 
 Well enough for leaflets 
 
 That last but a season here, 
 Well enough for babbling brooks 
 
 Which e'er through lowlands wend. 
 Well enough for rivers broad 
 
 That on to oceans tend, 
 Well enough for birdlings 
 
 Which plume their wings for flight. 
 Well enough for fleecy clouds 
 
 That soon are lost to sight, 
 Well enough for harvests 
 
 Which ripen but to fall, 
 Well enough for summer's bloom 
 
 That sears at autumn's call. 
 Well enough for torrents wild 
 
 Which vanish with their flow, 
 Well enough for passing storms 
 
 That perish as the}'' blow. 
 Well enough for angry waves 
 
 Which break on rock-bound strands, 
 Well enough for rain and flood 
 
 Absorbed by parched lands, 
 Well enough for changing skies 
 
 Which darkness shroudeth o'er, 
 Well enouffh for restless seas 
 
IMMORTALITF TO MAN. 247 
 
 That wash a pilgrim shore, 
 Well enough for sterile wastes 
 
 Enslaved in thorny bands, 
 Well enough for deserts drear 
 
 Engulfed by shifting sands, 
 Well enough for polar wilds 
 
 Which the frost-king bindeth fast, 
 Well enough for tropic realms 
 
 Consumed by torrid blast. 
 Well enough for fleeting days 
 
 Which e'er with eve decline, 
 Well enough for terrestrial orbs 
 
 That alone 'mid shadows shine, 
 Well enough for grovelling things 
 
 All futureless here alone. 
 Well enough for brutes and beasts 
 
 That have no other home, 
 Well enough for objects 
 
 Which these earth-realms satisfy, 
 But scarce a dropping for the thirst 
 
 Of souls which cannot die : 
 These all require the changeless scenes 
 
 Of heights eternal born, 
 The Almighty vigor, heavenly dews 
 
 Of everlasting morn, 
 The calms of a sinless Eden 
 
 Which may not pass away, , 
 
248 IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 
 
 The radiance grand, unending, 
 
 Of uncreated day, 
 The unwasting floods of shadeless light 
 
 Which beam from cloudless skies. 
 The living green of Canaan's fields 
 
 Whose verdure never dies, 
 The bloom of Omnipotent fulness 
 
 Luxuriant in fadeless bowers, 
 The sweets of immortal fragrance 
 
 Exhaled by deathless flowers, 
 The airs of immaculate purity 
 
 Wafted those high realms o'er, 
 The unwithering spring-time of delight 
 
 Which reigns o'er a graveless shore, 
 The founts of God-given waters 
 
 Forever flowing, blest 
 Salvation welling up to life 
 
 In tideless seas of rest, 
 E'en the raptures of a residence 
 
 With Redemption's Lord above, 
 The glory reigning in His presence 
 
 Through an eternity of His love. 
 And hence for these imperishable. 
 
 With a destiny divine, 
 Life hath but its dawning 
 
 Behind the hills of Time ; 
 This is but the seeding. 
 
IMMORTALITV TO MAN. 249 
 
 • The harvest's by and by, 
 And then o'erflowing garners 
 
 Of blessedness on high ; 
 This is alone the season 
 
 For the dressing of the vine 
 To a glorious, priceless vintage 
 
 In a more exalted clime ; 
 Only this the quarrjing. 
 
 Beneath a torrid sun. 
 For a nobler temple building 
 
 In a better land to come ; 
 Merely here the hewing 
 
 On the hill's bleak sides alone, 
 But the King says, after Lebanon 
 
 Is eternal rest at home 
 In a palace bright of glory. 
 
 Designed for the heir to be, 
 On the site of a Saviour's purchase, 
 
 But of stones here shaped by thee. 
 In view, then, of this heritage, 
 
 It doth behoove each one 
 To seek at once the allotted task, 
 
 Nor weary when it come ; 
 For every single human being 
 
 On the Earth some place doth fill. 
 And to each, whate'er his station, 
 
 Comes a mission to fulfil ; 
 
250 IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 
 
 Perchance 'tis 'mid surroundings lowly, 
 
 Maybe on peaks of greatness grand, 
 Still, before him God sets dxxlj, 
 
 Work of life for heart and hand j 
 And till this is all accomplished, 
 
 And the course is fully run, 
 Man is like the mountains round him, 
 
 Deathless till his work is done ; 
 But when Death at last o'ertakes him, 
 
 Sure it is Time's part's replete, 
 Thereafter in the boundless future 
 
 The framework's set and made complete ; 
 Likewise every soul doth have its burdens 
 
 In the vale of mortal night. 
 But remember 'tis 'mid shadows 
 
 Thou art building unto light, 
 And e'en though each earthly toiler 
 
 Bears some heavy cross through Time, 
 That affliction is the sculptor 
 
 Sent to deck the house Divine ; 
 While of other woes assailing, — 
 
 Pangs and heartaches every one, — 
 These are all of wayward sowing 
 
 Or of heedless labor done ; 
 Hence every root of bitterness 
 
 Which in thy life is found 
 Hath sprung of thought and action 
 
IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 251 
 
 With which that life is crowned ; 
 All these thorns and thistles 
 
 Which in thy pathway grow 
 Are but the ripening harvests 
 
 Of the seedings long ago ; 
 While all this ashen fruitaare 
 
 Which is thy present store 
 Hath come of thine own planting, 
 
 In unguarded hours, before ; 
 For as the tree so is the fruit, 
 
 The grain doth the seed's form keep, 
 " Of whatsoever, therefore, thou so west. 
 
 That also thou shalt reap." 
 And though this sowing's all 
 
 For another sphere. 
 The first-fruits of the harvest 
 
 Are always gathered here ; 
 Though the planting and the dressing 
 
 Is all for other lands, 
 Some clusters of the vintage 
 
 Are pressed by earthen hands ; 
 And though the hewing and the quarrying 
 
 Is all for realms divine. 
 The foundations of the structure 
 
 Are ever laid in Time ; 
 While of all the varied builders, 
 
 Weak and strong, the small and great, 
 
252 IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 
 
 Unto each the task's apportioned 
 
 Which for place doth compensate. 
 Then act well thy part, 
 
 Whate'er it be, 
 Since all are building 
 
 For eternity : 
 Building on the rock 
 
 A house to stand, 
 Or quaking huts 
 
 Upon the sand ; 
 Castles immovable 
 
 By the mountain's wall, 
 Or tottering hovels 
 
 On the beach to fall ; 
 Palaces for Heaven, 
 
 On its heights to dwell, 
 Or hideous dungeons 
 
 For the slopes of Hell. 
 Lay, then, in Godliness 
 
 Foundations sure 
 That to all the future 
 
 Must endure. 
 Fashion of piety 
 
 A structure grand 
 That shall rear its dome 
 
 In a nobler land, 
 While of holiness build 
 
IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 253 
 
 A temple bright 
 That will shine resplendent 
 
 On the hills of light ; 
 Then, 'midst the crash 
 
 Of world 'gainst world, 
 As sun and system 
 
 Are to fragments hurled, 
 When tongues of fire 
 
 Lick ocean dry 
 And falling pillars 
 
 Rend the sky, 
 "When destruction sweeps 
 
 This fated shore 
 And things of Time 
 
 And sense are o'er, 
 When hurrying doom 
 
 Blots out the day 
 And the heavens and Earth 
 
 Do pass away, 
 Serenely mayst thou 
 
 Witness all. 
 For thine is a house 
 
 Which may not fall, — 
 A mansion eternal 
 
 On immortal strands, 
 " A building of God 
 
 Not made with hands." 
 22 
 
25-4 IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 
 
 Be faithful, then, 
 
 In duty's sphere. 
 The reward lies hence. 
 
 But the blessing's here ; 
 'Tis for the toilers, 
 
 Not the drones, 
 That e'en this Earth-land 
 
 Hath its homes ; 
 Not to the skulker 
 
 Who hath fled, 
 The world weaves chaplets 
 
 For the conqueror's head 
 The race is never 
 
 To the faint, 
 It takes the hero 
 
 To make a saint ; 
 "While e'en below 
 
 'Tis the sailor tried 
 Who alone can sail 
 
 O'er the ocean wide. 
 Then think not to win 
 
 A crown of life 
 By remaining passive 
 
 In the strife, 
 Hope not to attain 
 
 Eternal day 
 By listless lagging 
 
IMMORTALITY TO MAN 255 
 
 'Long the way, 
 Nor yet to reach 
 
 Immortal shores 
 By resting idly 
 
 On thine oars ; 
 No, onward, upward, 
 
 Is the cry 
 Which leads triumphant 
 
 To the sky, 
 The battle's din 
 
 Will not be done 
 Till the last of foes 
 
 Is overcome. 
 And he who would 
 
 Obtain life's prize 
 Must wield the sword 
 
 Until he dies ; 
 The call to lay 
 
 His armor by 
 Will come with victory's 
 
 Palms on high ; 
 The road is tortuous, 
 
 Narrow, steep, 
 'Long mountain-sides, 
 
 O'er a yawning deep ; 
 From every glen 
 
 A siren calls, 
 
25 G IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 
 
 At every turn 
 
 Some j)ilgrim falls, 
 And only those 
 
 Whose footing's sure 
 Will ever to the rest 
 
 Above endure. 
 The course lies o'er 
 
 A treacherous main 
 In abject thraldom 
 
 To the storm-king's reign, 
 Where sunken reef 
 
 And hidden shoal 
 Like beasts of prey 
 
 Confront the soul, 
 And alone by chart 
 
 Divinely given 
 Can the helmsman steer 
 
 'Twixt these to Heaven. 
 'Tis the steadfast, therefoi'c. 
 
 Who alone prevail, 
 The piloted ship 
 
 That rides the gale, 
 The loyal heir 
 
 Who mounts the throne. 
 And the lamp-lit feet 
 
 Which journey home ; 
 For while the service 
 
IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 257 
 
 Hath its woes, 
 And all the way 
 
 Is lined with foes, 
 Though temjDests rage 
 
 And waters roar, 
 While rocks and breakers 
 
 Fringe the shore. 
 Still, truth's anchor 
 
 Holdeth fast, 
 Its compass leads 
 
 To land at last. 
 Its breastplate ever 
 
 Doth withstand, 
 Till Canaan greets 
 
 Its guiding hand ; 
 And yet the runner here 
 
 Who would succeed 
 Must drop all that 
 
 Which could impede, 
 The warrior true. 
 
 With his sword drawn, 
 Must liave naught else 
 
 But armor on ; 
 Thou canst not journey 
 
 With the throng, 
 Nor expect to take 
 
 The world along, 
 22* 
 
258 IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 
 
 But with every weight 
 
 And drag o'ercast, 
 Firm at thy post 
 
 Before the mast, 
 Commit thy bark 
 
 Unto the w^ave, 
 And the God of promise 
 
 Then wMll save ; 
 For no wall surrounds salvation, 
 
 It hath no stile nor stair, 
 But, a gift sublime of Heaven, 
 
 'Tis full and free as air ; 
 And as of this existence 
 
 Earth's breath doth e'er receive, 
 So in this upper atmosphere 
 
 'Tis life but to believe. 
 Hence by simple trust, 
 
 "With duty done, 
 The victory is 
 
 Forever won. 
 The rest secured. 
 
 The home obtained. 
 An eternal crown 
 
 And kingdom gained, 
 The title deed 
 
 To glory given. 
 And clearance with it 
 
IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 259 
 
 For the port of Heaven. 
 Awake, then, from thy lethargy. 
 
 Dispel all thy fears, 
 Cast out thy misgivings 
 
 And dry up thy tears; 
 'Tis a Father's voice 
 
 Which calls on high, 
 And through all thy straits 
 
 He will be nigh ; 
 The ear which hears 
 
 The feeblest sigh 
 Is ever open 
 
 To the servant's cry ; 
 The eye which notes 
 
 The sparrow's fall 
 Doth e'er enfold 
 
 The loved ones all; 
 The hand out which 
 
 The ravens feed 
 Will sure suppl}" 
 
 The children's need ; 
 The care which doth 
 
 The rose adorn 
 Will never leave 
 
 The heir forlorn ; 
 While the love which gave 
 
 A Son to die 
 
1 
 
 260 IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 
 
 Will bring His jewels 
 
 To the sky. 
 And as for storms 
 
 Which intervene, — 
 The clouds and night 
 
 Which lie between, — 
 Do not the same 
 
 Attend each change 
 Throughout the realms 
 
 Of Nature's range ? 
 Icy blasts 
 
 Precede the spring, 
 Continuous showers 
 
 The flowerets bring. 
 Out of mistings 
 
 Comes the morn, 
 Of the darkness 
 
 Day is born. 
 The evening's not 
 
 Till setting sun. 
 But with its shadows 
 
 Work is done, 
 And dost thou sigh 
 
 When the day of toil is run, 
 For that the season 
 
 Of repose hath come ? 
 Art thou sad 
 
IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 261 
 
 When the blackness flees away 
 And the rising sun 
 
 Proclaims the day? 
 Dost thou regret 
 
 The winter past 
 When the spring puts forth 
 
 Its bloom at last ? 
 Or dost thou weep 
 
 When calms smooth out the seas 
 And the storm is hushed 
 
 Along the leas ? 
 If then so tranquil 
 
 When Earth's throbbings cease, 
 What mean these repinings 
 
 At the soul's release ? 
 Why frown the end 
 
 Of trouble's lease, 
 Or start and quiver 
 
 In the lap of peace ? 
 Or why seek phantoms 
 
 For thy fears 
 Here at the close 
 
 Of sorrow's years ? 
 Why, the very forms 
 
 Which thee affright 
 Are ministering angels 
 
 In their flight, 
 
262 IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 
 
 The very objects 
 
 Of thy fear 
 Are celestial messengers 
 
 Drawing near, 
 While in the darkest vale 
 
 Of mortal dread 
 The light of life 
 
 Doth shine instead ; 
 E'en "the Jordan's" flood, 
 
 With frigid wave, 
 Which here appalls thee 
 
 As it laps the Grave, 
 Breaks into rapturous welcomes 
 
 On the farther shore 
 To those who'll breast 
 
 Its surge no more. 
 There is no Death ; 
 
 Life's sunset here 
 Is eternal dawn 
 
 In an immortal sphere. 
 And what seems so 's but a vapor 
 
 Of the Earth, evening born, 
 Naught but a mist 
 
 Through which cometh morn ; 
 Only a dividing line 
 
 At the horizon thin, 
 Where these moi'tal shades end 
 
 ^i 
 
IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 263 
 
 And Heaven's glories begin ; 
 Merely transition 
 
 From darkness to light, 
 The day-star emerging 
 
 From the shadows of niffht ; 
 Simply a shifting of scene 
 
 For what the finite styles breath, 
 And but the scene-shifter 
 
 Whom the mortal calls Death ; 
 Albeit a glorious release 
 
 From the material bond 
 Of first conditions, 
 
 And a stride beyond, 
 A grand uprising 
 
 From Earth's basement gloom 
 To the shadeless light 
 
 Of life's upper room, 
 A blest promotion 
 
 From Time's carnal rule 
 To the eternal courses 
 
 Of an immortal school, 
 A passing over 
 
 This flesh divide 
 To the infinite areas 
 
 Of the other side, 
 A pressing on 
 
 From creation's bounds 
 
264 IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 
 
 To the Omniscient progression 
 
 Of the cycle's rounds, 
 Only bidding adieu 
 
 To these bleak wilds of pain, 
 To begin life anew 
 
 On a loftier plane ; 
 Neither is there aught destructive 
 
 In the Grave's decay, 
 But simply a refining 
 
 Of the dross away, 
 A renewing and cleansing 
 
 From the filth of Earth. 
 A corruptible prelude 
 
 To a heavenly birth, 
 A sowing of mortality 
 
 In the valleys of Time 
 To an immortal harvest 
 
 In life's fields divine, 
 A planting of weakness 
 
 To a vintage of might, 
 A prologue of dishonor 
 
 To a kingdom of light; 
 Solely the putting oif 
 
 Of a garb forlorn 
 To don the vestments 
 
 Which by saints are worn, 
 The leaving behind, 
 
IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 265 
 
 To rot in store, 
 Of the raiment unsuited 
 
 To a deathless shore ; 
 Only a hiding from sight 
 
 Of the toiler's clothes 
 As the heir, reclaimed, 
 
 To his birthright goes; 
 Simply the returning to Earth 
 
 Of its subject gown 
 As the prince, in his banishment. 
 
 Receives the crown ; 
 For this pulsating robe 
 
 Of gilded dust, 
 Polluted and tarnished 
 
 With sin's moth and rust. 
 Abandoned and cast 
 
 Aside must be 
 Ei'e its wearer's 
 
 Eyes can see 
 A single glory 
 
 Which belongs to me. 
 Still, only for Time; 
 
 A blest reunion will come, 
 Then, to all eternity glorified, 
 
 They reign on as one. 
 
 M 23 
 
266 IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 
 
 But hark! the Infinite speaketh, 
 
 Open thine ear 
 To covenants eternal 
 
 That will banish thy fear: 
 "Behold, I am with thee, 
 
 Oh, be not dismayed, 
 I, even I, am He 
 
 Whom thy ransom hath paid ; 
 I've given both Ethiopia 
 
 And Egypt for thee, 
 The rich realm of Seba 
 
 And the isles of the sea ; 
 Though the waters rage round, 
 
 They shall ne'er thee o'erflow, 
 But through all the billows 
 
 Dry-shod thou shalt go; 
 And though into the furnace 
 
 Thou mayst have call, 
 My presence e'en there 
 
 Will surround as a wall ; 
 Though all Hell conspire against thee, 
 
 It shall ne'er do thee harm. 
 For I will uphold thee 
 
 With an Almighty arm, 
 And e'en to old age 
 
 I will ever maintain. 
 And on to hoar hairs 
 
IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 267 
 
 Will I cheer and sustain ; 
 When thy father forsakes thee 
 
 And e'en mother-love's flown, 
 When all bid thee go, 
 
 Yet I'll not disown. 
 But to all the future, 
 
 As from all the past, 
 My love, Almighty, unchanging, 
 
 Enduring, shall last ; 
 When the deep's swept by tempests 
 
 And the seas seem to o'erwhelm, 
 Still, be of good cheer, 
 
 My hand's at the helm, 
 And safe through all dangers 
 
 I'll bring thee to land, 
 For the waters obey me 
 
 And the winds I command ; 
 When foes press thee hard. 
 
 And thou art ready to yield. 
 Then new courage take, 
 
 I am thy shield ; 
 ' At all times my grace 
 
 Is sufficient for thee, 
 And my strength in thy weakness 
 
 Made perfect shall be ;' 
 When lost in the sloughs 
 
 Where dragons abide, 
 
268 IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 
 
 Look then unto me, 
 
 I'll be thy guide, 
 And through the mazes and shadows 
 
 Of this Death-clouded way 
 I'll direct and I'll bring thee 
 
 To the brightness of day; 
 When thou goest through 'the valley,' 
 
 I will be near, 
 And my rod and my staff 
 
 They shall comfort and cheei'. 
 "While here in these arms. 
 
 Folded close to my breast, 
 O'er the last foe triumphant 
 
 I will bear thee to rest ; 
 And when after thy skin 
 
 Worms this body destroy. 
 Then a form incorruptible 
 
 I will give thee in joy, 
 Glorious raiment immortal 
 
 For the soul to put on. 
 When these poor mortal rags 
 
 Are all perished and gone ; 
 For I am the Lord, 
 
 Thy Saviour and God, 
 Gathering my children 
 
 From near and abroad, 
 Tenderly leading 
 
IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 269 
 
 O'er life's rugged road 
 To the glories unutterable 
 
 Of a saintly abode, 
 Guiding the bark 
 
 Through the swelling and storm 
 Till the calms of the haven 
 
 Eeceiveth its form, 
 Noting the conflict 
 
 With an e'er-watchful eye 
 Till the victor is crowned 
 
 With the laurel on high, 
 Following closely the wanderer 
 
 In his exile alone, 
 And ne'er leaving his side 
 
 Till he's safe housed at home 
 In the mansions eternal 
 
 Which in thy Father's house be, 
 That thine own Elder Brother's 
 
 Now preparing for thee; 
 Home in the gi*and 'guest-chamber,' 
 
 Where the banner o'er is love. 
 To that unspeakable reunion 
 
 In the ' banqueting house' above ; 
 Home to the rapturous ingathering 
 
 Of a blood-washed kindred band. 
 To the heavenly recognition 
 
 Of the blessed Fatherland ; 
 23* 
 
270 IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 
 
 Home for all eternity 
 
 For ever and for aye, 
 To the uncreated excellence 
 
 Of a nameless, endless day, 
 To the praises grand, victorious. 
 
 Hymned by Earth's saved alone 
 In the everlasting celebration 
 
 Of an immortal ' harvest homo.' ' 
 
 And yet, between all this and thee 
 
 Exists but a point of Time, 
 Perchance but another heart-beat 
 
 And these I'aptures all are thine ; 
 Only another breath drawn, 
 
 Maybe but one more sigh, 
 Till all these fadeless glories 
 
 Enfold thy soul on high ; 
 A little longer sojourn 
 
 In this alien desert land. 
 And a crown will clasp thy forehead 
 
 And a sceptre grace thine hand ; 
 A few more fleeting shades, 
 
 Perhaps yet another night. 
 And then, — oh, blest awakening 
 
 From darkness into light! 
 At most another earth-day, 
 
IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 271 
 
 Its heats and burdens borne, 
 Closed with a jieaceful sunset, 
 
 Then Heaven's eternal morn. 
 E'en now the glory pierceth 
 
 The rifts in this mortal cloud, 
 And oft on Earth's expectant ear 
 
 The music falls aloud ; 
 The mists about the border 
 
 Thou art already passing through. 
 And e'en now above thy brow appears 
 
 Droppings of the ether dew ; 
 Soon now the journey endeth, 
 
 Thy bark fast neareth land, 
 Thine earth-night now is almost spent, 
 
 For the morning is at hand ; 
 E'en now thy footsteps press the brink. 
 
 And there, beside the shore, 
 Await the loved of long ago 
 
 To bear thy spirit o'er 
 To the land of wondi^ous story, 
 
 To the realms of matchless love. 
 To the kingdom blest, celestial. 
 
 Where thy Father reigns above ; 
 And though truly yet in exile, — 
 
 A pilgrim sad, alone, — 
 Still, all these ills and cares surrounding 
 
 Are but heralds of the summons home. 
 
272 IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 
 
 Behold, then, these silent messengers, 
 
 Hearken to their mute a^Dpeal ; 
 See, they cling e'en to thy garments 
 
 And into thy dwelling steal: 
 These feeble limbs, 
 
 These palsied hands, 
 Is futurity beckoning 
 
 To immortal lands ; 
 This broken speech. 
 
 This stammering tongue, 
 Is Life's Morning whispering 
 
 That Earth's evening's come ; 
 This bended form. 
 
 This shrivelled skin. 
 Is eternity knocking 
 
 For the tenant within; 
 These beclouded eyes. 
 
 These stopped-up ears, 
 Proclaim to the soul 
 
 That its Heaven appears; 
 While the nearing radiance 
 
 Falls and grows apace 
 On these whitening locks 
 
 And this Time-seamed face ; 
 For didst thy sojourn last forever, 
 
 Forever, then, thine house would stand, 
 And 'tis thus this crumbling round thee. 
 
IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 273 
 
 All denotes a pilgrim land ; 
 Was this darkness e'er to smite thee, 
 
 Then would the night be longer drawn ; 
 What, then, mean these rising vapors 
 
 Which do e'er foretell the dawn ? 
 Were these seas so deep and boundless, 
 
 Smoothly wouldst thou sail them o'er; 
 Then, do not life's jai's admonish 
 
 That thy keel's now grating shore? 
 Had this weary way no ending. 
 
 Then would thy feet be better shod ; 
 What, then, can Time's wear betoken 
 
 Other than the rest of God ? 
 Or did Earth's conflicts never cease. 
 
 Valiant then thy soul would be ; 
 Whence, then, all these anxious yearnings, 
 
 If not pointing to eternity? 
 Ah ! thine is God's image, 
 
 After His likeness is thy frame, 
 And never, never this can Earth efface, 
 
 Though all its shades may once profane ; 
 The breath which floods thy nostrils 
 
 Is a spring from the living main, 
 And, like a storm-tossed vapor, here 
 
 Dissolves yet appears again 
 To soar in matchless splendors 
 
 The vaults of ethereal skies. 
 
274 " IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 
 
 A nameless part of the eternal God, 
 
 A something which never dies. 
 More than this I may not tell, 
 
 Nor draw the veil aside 
 Upon the wonders that await 
 
 The spirit glorified ; 
 But be patient only yet a little while, 
 
 And then thy soul will be 
 Eaised to the lofty honors 
 
 Which are its destiny ; 
 Then all the incomprehensible 
 
 Hedging round existence here, 
 In that full noontide of brightness 
 
 Will be open, plain, and clear ; 
 Then this understanding finite 
 
 Into an all-discerning thing will change, 
 And this narrow mortal vision 
 
 Will put on Omniscient range; 
 Then eternal knowledge will replace 
 
 This contracted earthly lore, 
 And all the future, like the past. 
 
 Be mapped the mind before ; 
 Then, while thj'- footsteps tread 
 
 The mansions of the just, 
 A light from God will mark the road 
 
 Which leadeth up from dust ; 
 Then Death's dark mission will be told, 
 
IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 275 
 
 And why the body dies, 
 As also how the Grave's decay 
 
 Dotli fit it for the skies ; 
 Then the purposes of affliction, 
 
 As well the cares of Time, 
 Will all be seen in living light 
 
 And felt in joj's divine ; 
 Then the mysteries of creation, 
 
 The wonders of redeeming love, 
 The marvels of a resurrection morning. 
 
 Will all bo known above ; 
 Then only will thy spirit comprehend, 
 
 While thine eyes, unshaded, see 
 The full measure of the ecstasies 
 
 Which are hidden now in me, 
 To which all earthly pomp and splendor. 
 
 In their most sublime display. 
 Cannot for a moment more be likened 
 
 Than can night compare with day. 
 Therefore, all these tribulations. 
 
 All the ills this life doth yield. 
 Are but stepping-stones to the glory 
 
 Which in thee shall be revealed, 
 Are but rungs upon the ladder 
 
 Whence existence climbs the height. 
 Scales the mount its home commanding, 
 Plumes its wings and takes its flight ; 
 
276 IMMORTALITY TO MAN. 
 
 Merely are life's fetters dropping, 
 
 Snappings of these carnal chains, 
 Falling bolts from off the dungeon 
 
 Whence the soul its Heaven attains 
 Voices only from the Eternal calling 
 
 Into the shades of mortal night, 
 " I created, then redeemed thee. 
 
 And 'tis thus I lead to light." 
 Whence, then, these fears, 
 
 And why repine. 
 Since all of Earth 
 
 And Heaven are thine ? 
 E'en immortal realms 
 
 Which being sods, 
 For thou art Christ's 
 
 And Christ is God's; 
 But though truly thus 
 
 My child to be, 
 Earth hath yet 
 
 A day for thee; 
 But when that is ended, 
 
 Then I'll see. 
 And will tell thee all 
 
 In eternity. 
 
 Thus another dream 
 Of life was broken, 
 
IMMORTALITF TO MAN. 277 
 
 Which, departing, 
 
 Left no tolcen 
 Save the memory 
 
 Of that promise spoken; 
 But this shall ever fill 
 
 The dreamer's ears, 
 Eevive his hopes 
 
 And quench his fears; 
 Then after the flight 
 
 Of these mortal years, 
 With the journey ended 
 
 Through this "vale of tears," 
 May both he and the reader 
 
 See and feel and hear 
 That immortal all 
 
 In its deathless sphere. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Printed bv J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia.