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DEC 20 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.! 
 
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OOGI 
 
 
Cbristus IDtctot 
 
 A STUDENT S REVERIE 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY NEHEMIAH DODGE 
 
 SECOND EDITION 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM S SONS 
 
 NEW YORK AND LONDON 
 
 Gbe Ifcnicfcetbocfcer press 
 
 1900 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1900 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY N. DODGE 
 Entered at Stationers Hall, London 
 
 tTbe ifcnic RerbQcfeer iprew, ew 
 
World- Saviour, see me at Thy feet 
 
 Awe-stricken; in my hands, for Thine unmeet, 
 
 My hearfs best treasure dearly bought 
 
 With tears and travail, and with trembling brought. 
 
 If in this casket Thou shouldst find 
 
 Aught to adorn Thy way or help mankind, 
 
 Though not frankincense, myrrh, or gold, 
 
 Tribute of star-led caravans of old, 
 
 Take it, Heart of Love Divine, 
 
 And ^tse it as Thou wilt, for it is Thine. 
 
PRELUDE 
 
 C EE on His mother s gentle breast, 
 ^ The infant Saviour sink to rest; 
 Soon will she lay His baby head 
 In peace upon His manger-bed ; 
 Sleep, little Jesu, sleep awhile, 
 Then bless us with Thy waking smile. 
 
 Angels, sing some sweet lullaby, 
 Soft echoes from the blissful sky; 
 Sing, angels, sing to all the earth 
 The story of His lowly birth; 
 Look, sons of men, a wondrous sight- 
 Love new-born, with resistless might! 
 
 This dimpled form, so soft and fair, 
 The burdens of a world shall bear; 
 
vi pcetuDe 
 
 These tender feet, so small and weak, 
 For us, where er we stray, shall seek; 
 These little arms outstretched shall be 
 For all mankind on Calvary. 
 
 Wake, Child, the nations need Thee, wake! 
 The mighty now Thy vassals make ; 
 Subdue their stubborn wills to Thine, 
 O ermastered by a touch divine; 
 Thy conquering love fierce passions tame 
 And get new glory to Thy name. 
 
 Clothed in love s peerless majesty, 
 
 Lead warring nations after Thee, 
 
 That following they may find Thy way 
 
 To light and peace, and in that day 
 
 Forever, at Thy bidding, sheathe their swords, 
 
 And hail Thee King of Kings and Lord of Lords ! 
 
ARGUMENT 
 
 IN an old New England farmhouse a student sits 
 in meditation; a fierce storm raging without, his 
 lamp and fire dimly burning within, his closed 
 book before him, and the skeleton which he has 
 been studying beside him. 
 
 Falling into a train of reflection upon the human 
 form, he is led to think of the undeveloped powers 
 and the future life of that being whose frame has 
 long engrossed his study. 
 
 After various meditations upon the immortal life 
 into which, as in a vision, he sees an endless flood 
 of souls rising from the earth, his mind is filled with 
 questioning thoughts as to the final destiny of man 
 kind, feeling that an all-wise God whose nature is 
 love, must have designed the human race which 
 He created, for happiness and hpliness at last. 
 
viii Brsument 
 
 The student is overawed by the immensity of the 
 thought and by those teachings of the Scriptures 
 which appear to conflict with such an idea. Where 
 upon he is led to consider one or two typical 
 passages usually held to support a contrary view, 
 and as his mind begins to rest upon a hopeful 
 solution of the question, other objections of a phi 
 losophical character relating to freedom, law, etc., 
 rise to confront him. 
 
 After considering these and some other questions 
 to which they lead, and still feeling that Love must 
 in the end be triumphant, in spite of all the vast 
 opposing forces, he appeals to the risen Saviour to 
 show the manner and extent of His victory, that 
 his soul may rest in quiet on a sure foundation. 
 
 The Saviour relates to him the experience of His 
 passion as a pledge of His final and complete 
 victory over evil. 
 
 Perfect peace takes possession of the student s 
 mind as he hears a chant of triumph sung by the 
 heavenly hosts, hailing the sure victory of love. 
 
 The writer s treatment of his subject is but frag 
 mentary, as indeed befits so vast a theme ; so vast 
 that it will not suffer itself to be cramped within 
 the formalities of an orderly arrangement, but 
 
Brsument ix 
 
 rather, like drifting fragments of a wondrous vision, 
 kindles the imagination with faint, disjointed 
 glimpses of the mighty whole which may not yet 
 be grasped in the fulness of its majesty. 
 
 Like the musician haunted by some sweet, elu 
 sive melody, now leading, now driving him from 
 key to key, from stop to stop of his instrument, the 
 writer seeks through diverse forms of rhythm and 
 measure some expression for the unutterable joy of 
 the divine harmony that has stirred his soul. 
 
PROLOGUE 
 
 f~\ HEAVENLY DOVE, thy quickening influ- 
 
 ^^ ence give, 
 
 Brood o er my helpless thoughts and make them 
 
 live; 
 
 Strengthen and clothe my feeble, fledgeling words, 
 That they may fly abroad like happy birds ; 
 That they to saddened hearts new hope may bear, 
 And with long-troubled minds their gladness share; 
 New light within some darkened chamber fling, 
 Sunlight swift glancing from a passing wing, 
 Till joy shall take the place of doubt s dull pain 
 And the fainthearted one fresh courage gain ; 
 Some scoffer learn how great the love he spurns, 
 That like a home lamp for his coming burns; 
 Some wavering soldier buckle on his sword 
 And hasten to the warfare of his Lord. 
 
{prologue x 
 
 Come, Holy Spirit, touch my heart with fire, 
 Set free my stammering tongue and tune my lyre, 
 That I to my high theme new powers may bring, 
 The triumph of Almighty Love to sing! 
 
 Spent as a wounded bird 
 Fallen afield unheard, 
 My voice was mute. 
 
 Silent and hurt I lay, 
 While breathed afar all day 
 Spring s mellow flute. 
 
 Within me struggled long 
 Faint hope and dream of song, 
 My heart was numb. 
 
 Slow came each tuneless day, 
 Went its mysterious way, 
 And I lay dumb. 
 
 When, lo, a Heavenly voice 
 Bade my dead heart rejoice,- 
 Eternal spring ! 
 
prologue 
 
 " Sing of the times to be. 
 Of justice, liberty, 
 Truth s glory sing. 
 
 " Sing of the reign of love 
 Descending from above j 
 Here, take my lute ! 
 
 " For this I wounded thee, 
 Thatthou might* st sing for me 
 Thy longings mute." 
 
 Awake, oh lute, from silent sleep, 
 
 My heart is hotly urging ; 
 Awake and sing the mighty deep 
 With tide and tempest surging ! 
 
 My ship the heaving billow rolls, 
 The reeling mast a-swaying j 
 
 O, Guide of storm-beat, questing souls, 
 Keep Thou my keel from straying ! 
 
Iproloflue xiii 
 
 / tack along my wavering course, 
 
 Gainst wind and current ploughing j 
 
 The hungry ocean follows hoarse, 
 Vast requiem voices soughing. 
 
 Though storm and doubt my valor test. 
 
 Let not my soul be craven ; 
 O, Pilot, lead me to the rest 
 
 Of truth s far -shining haven ! 
 
Christus Victor:**-* 
 
 A STUDENT S REVERIE 
 I 
 
 T OUD storms the tempest, heaven is black with 
 
 *-* rage; 
 
 The headlong winds have broken every bond 
 
 And savage blasts go scouring through the sky, 
 
 As if a demon-hag with her foul imps 
 
 Swept shrieking down the night: a direful crew, 
 
 Fore-runners of some dread calamity. 
 
 Fierce glares the lightning, loud the thunders roar, 
 
 And swollen clouds pour down long treasured 
 
 wrath. 
 
 Grim gnarled oaks writhe groaning in the gale, 
 Like harassed souls, struggling with doubt and 
 
 fear 
 
2 Gbrfetus Wctor 
 
 Brave hearts, though torn, unconquered by the 
 
 storm ! 
 
 Hoarse gusts with ghostly cries besiege the house 
 And, shuddering, prowl about from door to door, 
 Now shake the casements, now with sad complaint 
 Hiss through the shivering crannies, " Let us in! " 
 The blazing firebrands cast a lurid glare 
 Over the room, making weird shadows dance 
 Fantastic measures to the wild refrain. 
 My book is closed, and night wears slowly on 
 The while I muse, in drifting reverie lost : 
 
 II 
 
 What is this that sits beside me! 
 
 Who my guest this fearful night ? 
 Whose these pallid, ghostly features 
 
 Shining in the fitful light ? 
 
 Spectral face of doubtful meaning- 
 Was it but the flickering gleam 
 
 Of the flame which from that visage 
 Caused a deathly smile to beam ? 
 
 Was it that the sudden shudder 
 Of the storm-wind s gusty flaws 
 
/Masterpiece 
 
 Made a sound like hollow laughter 
 Gurgle through those fleshless jaws i 
 
 Ha, t was not a laugh he uttered, 
 Long ago that voice was hushed ; 
 
 Long it is since grief or pleasure 
 From that withered bosom gushed. 
 
 Those white limbs of his are lifeless, 
 And that jaw is fixed and stern, 
 
 And his orbless sockets, glaring, 
 Never from the embers turn. 
 
 Ill 
 
 grisly phantom of a man, 
 
 1 know not how thy story ran, 
 
 Or whether thou wert stern of face 
 
 Or wreathed with smiles and winsome grace, 
 
 Or whence thy footsteps hither came, 
 
 Or what thy lineage or name; 
 
 Howe er unknown the tale may be, 
 
 Yet wert thou fellow-man to me. 
 
 Nay, leave thy rigid hand in mine, 
 For I thy secret would divine-, 
 
Wctor 
 
 How oft mine eyes have run thee o er 
 To con the cabalistic lore 
 Deep carved on every glistening bone, 
 As I have sat with thee alone, 
 Searching for each minute detail 
 That aught my purpose might avail: 
 But now upon this grewsome night 
 I see thee in a fairer light; 
 What is it binds my life to thee, 
 What thread of common destiny ? 
 
 Of what avail is all the strife, 
 The stress and toil of human life, 
 If this wan spectre is the goal, 
 The final answer to the soul ? 
 Yet night doth so oppress my heart 
 With solitude and storm, thou art 
 A welcome comrade, though I trace 
 Scant fellowship in thy hard face ! 
 I can but feel, whoe er thou art, 
 That in my life thou hadst a part, 
 That in thy lineaments I see 
 One who is somehow knit to me, 
 Whose life and mine, for ill or good, 
 Join in a mystic brotherhood. 
 
Lo, this is but a ruined home 
 Whose tenant now afar doth roam, 
 This habitation left behind 
 Some statelier palace dome to find. 
 Here once an eager spirit dwelt 
 Who all our common passion felt ; 
 His humble cot these crumbling walls 
 Where now my voice so vainly calls. 
 Once blithesome laughter echoed here, 
 And pain s lament, and cries of fear. 
 This stony face that naught can move 
 Once answered to the tones of love, 
 As, rocked upon a mother s breast, 
 Her sheltering arms this form caressed. 
 
 What songs of joy were lightly trilled! 
 
 What rapture once this bosom thrilled! 
 
 What throes of pain these members shook 
 
 Ere he this tenement forsook! 
 
 But ere the spirit went his way, 
 
 Leaving this ruin to decay, 
 
 Was there no missive hidden here, 
 
 No word of greeting for my ear; 
 
 Did he no message leaye with thee, 
 
 O Shadow of Humanity ? 
 
6 Gbrtetus Dictor 
 
 IV 
 
 Why shrink away from this grim skeleton ? 
 For here is beauty. See, each curving bone 
 Is carved and fashioned by a skilful hand 
 And fitted to its fellow, while the whole 
 For strength is built, a marvel of design ! 
 With cunning art the supple joints are wrought, 
 Suited to complex movements manifold. 
 Here is a channel deeply grooved to guard 
 Some tender vessel from all outward harm. 
 These serried ribs protect the beating heart 
 And with each surging breath, as billows, heave; 
 These bones rise dome-like over reason s throne. 
 
 This framework of a man, with tension strong 
 Full many a cord and band together knit; 
 And hold each timber of the spirit s house 
 Firmly in its appointed place; then all 
 The busy joints are freed from friction s heat, 
 Being moistened by the limpid flow within, 
 As the soft oil prevents the noisy clang 
 Of mighty engines, or the rattling loom. 
 
jflfcasterptece 7 
 
 VI 
 
 See where the swelling muscles next were placed; 
 
 Fold upon fold they lie, a ruddy mass, 
 
 The seat of strength, like strands close intertwined 
 
 Here is the source of labor s sturdy blows. 
 
 And skill of fingers as they deftly fly, 
 
 Making the softest music; here the touch 
 
 Of hands that tells of love. 
 
 VII 
 
 Through every part 
 
 A labyrinthic network winds, like some 
 Far-clambering vine whose wide-extended arms 
 Bear heavy clusters fraught with ruby wine. 
 Through swelling arteries with ceaseless flow 
 The stream of life comes rushing from the heart. 
 O heart, so steadfast in thy lifelong task, 
 Unfaltering day and night, from youth to age, 
 Thou strange, unfathomed fount of weal and woe ! 
 As a wild torrent chafes its banks and roars 
 With recent rain, so leaps this crimson stream 
 When passions burn ; as gentle waters flow 
 Neath summer sun, so glides this current on 
 When peace and health hold sway, bearing new 
 
 strength 
 Upon its waves. 
 
8 Cbri0tu0 Dictoc 
 
 VIII 
 
 The whole with art divine 
 Is rounded to the matchless form of man, 
 Modelled for beauty, strength, and majesty; 
 Lord of the earth, erect, facing the heavens, 
 Of all created forms the masterpiece. 
 And over all a silken vestment spreads, 
 Now mantling with the bloom and rose of youth, 
 Now blanched with age, or pain, or withering fear. 
 And on the head, like to a crown of glory 
 Or a strong helmet, see the thick, crisp hair 
 That to the manly face new beauty adds; 
 Or sunny tresses with their glorious wealth 
 White shoulders hiding, flowing down to drape 
 The graceful form with their luxuriance 
 As, mirrored first in Eden s crystal fount, 
 Eve, wondering, saw her glowing beauty shine 
 Fairer than first awoke the blushing morn 
 To meet the flashing eye of amorous day, 
 Fairer than the silvery moon on Paradise, 
 
 IX 
 
 Ah, who can tell the marvels of the eye, 
 Where thought, expectant, in its watch-tower 
 waits 
 
jflfcasterptece 
 
 A wondrous lens that pictures to the mind 
 The beauty and the terror of the world; 
 Mysterious mirror, deep, unfathomable; 
 The eye of man, before whose fearless gaze 
 The lion slinks affrighted to his lair; 
 A glowing beacon-light that flashes forth 
 On friend or foe the flames of love or hate 
 From pent up fires. 
 
 X 
 
 Hark how the song of birds, 
 The merry laughter or the cry of pain, 
 The muttering thunder and the ocean s roar, 
 Through the mysterious chambers of the ear, 
 Are echoed to the soul that dwells within! 
 
 XI 
 
 Here sounds the voice, that peerless instrument. 
 With gentle tones it lulls the babe to rest, 
 And murmurs words of love and tenderness; 
 With stern commands directs the strife of men, 
 Where nations struggle on the field of war; 
 Swayed by the magic of its eloquence, 
 The hearts of thousands beat with one accord ; 
 
io Cbrtetus Wctor 
 
 And, when it soars upon the wings of song, 
 The souls of men are touched with fire, and rise 
 High above earth and all its sordid care, 
 Consumed with longings fierce, impetuous, 
 That storm across the spirit roused from sleep 
 And raise a wild commotion in the deep. 
 
 XII 
 
 High over all, the brain, thought s mighty vassal, 
 
 Sits like a despot ruling by his will; 
 
 A thousand messengers await his nod 
 
 To bear his mandates with the lightning s speed. 
 
 Within this convoluted maze what powers, 
 
 What energies, what aspirations dwell, 
 
 And from their narrow cell reach forth to shake 
 
 The world, yea, dare to grasp the universe! 
 
 XIII 
 
 Before such lavish beauty of design 
 
 I stand in awe, and contemplate the throng 
 
 Of earth s unnumbered children, each one made 
 
 With skill so wonderful! Here we behold 
 
 The culmination of a mighty plan ; 
 
Cbe /l&asterpiece n 
 
 Each step, advancing from the lower depths 
 
 Of reptile life, displays a clearer mark 
 
 Of nearer likeness to creation s head. 
 
 This chain of life ascending, who shall trace 
 
 The spirit s frame ? Ah, who with wondering eye 
 
 Shall penetrate the soul s anatomy, 
 
 The texture of the immortal man disclose, 
 
 Or watch the ethereal spirit poise for flight 
 
 Released from earth s reluctant, clinging clay, 
 
 That form which still in glowing youth shall live 
 
 When all the starry hosts of heaven have passed ? 
 
 XIV 
 
 New wonders crowding thick on every side, 
 
 My soul is dazzled with infinity 
 
 And prostrate falls before Eternal Love, 
 
 Adoring Him, our Father and our God, 
 
 Whose glory fills the wide earth and the heavens, 
 
 Whose might created and whose will sustains. 
 
 He stamped His image on each human soul 
 
 And made us godlike in our mortal state; 
 
 He made our flesh His temple glorious, 
 
 Filled full of light divine; our weakness, strength; 
 
 Our death, the way to immortality. 
 
12 Cbrtetus Victor 
 
 XV 
 
 They judge not rightly who, the husk earth-stained 
 
 Seeing, ignore the precious seed within. 
 
 Could we but read aright the germs divine 
 
 Hid in this perishing frame, waiting the growth 
 
 Of countless ages and millenniums, 
 
 What eye could bear the glory of the sight 
 
 Blinded before the majesty revealed, 
 
 As t were the Lord of Light he looked upon! 
 
 So blends the finite with the infinite, 
 
 So close allied is man with Deity! 
 
 Each generation as it comes and goes 
 
 New powers evolves, greater dominion grasps, 
 
 And clearer vision of our birthright gains. 
 
 And when these germs shall feel the Eternal Spring 
 
 Breathing upon them, each shall wake to bloom 
 
 Of deathless beauty, unfolding leaf by leaf, 
 
 As the fair rosebud opens to the sun, 
 
 Each petal sweet with perfume all its own 
 
 Distilled from early dew, from sweat, from tears 
 
 Of earth, seethed in the slow retorts of God. 
 
 XVI 
 
 What man soe er I chance to see 
 Amazing thought is kin to me, 
 And if a man, my brother! 
 
B /ifean, nt JBrotber 13 
 
 What though in silken raiment fine 
 His form be clad, while naked mine; 
 He is a man, my brother. 
 
 What though with flashing chariot wheel 
 He spurn my cry, nor pity feel; 
 He is a man, my brother. 
 
 What though he sit in royal state 
 And for an empire legislate ; 
 He is a man, my brother. 
 
 What though of strange and alien race, 
 Of unfamiliar form and face ; 
 He is a man, my brother. 
 
 What though his hand be hard with toil 
 And labor his worn garment soil ; 
 He is a man, my brother. 
 
 What though ashamed, with drooping head, 
 He beg a morsel of my bread ; 
 He is a man, my brother. 
 
 What though he grovel at my feet, 
 Spurned by the rabble of the street ; 
 He is a man, my brother. 
 
14 Gbrtetus IDfctoc 
 
 What though his hand with crime be red, 
 His heart a stone, his conscience dead; 
 He is a man, my brother. 
 
 And when we pass upon the street 
 It is my brother that I meet; 
 Alas, alas, my brother! 
 
 Though low his life and black his heart, 
 There is a nobler, deathless part 
 Within this man, my brother. 
 
 The soul which this frail clay enfolds 
 The image of its Maker holds; 
 
 That makes this man my brother. 
 
 Though dimly there that image shine, 
 It marks the soul a thing divine, 
 A child of God, my brother. 
 
 For him the spotless Son of God, 
 The Perfect Man, our pathway trod, 
 To show Himself our Brother. 
 
 Nor walks the earth so vile a wretch 
 But down to him that love doth stretch, 
 As to an only brother. 
 
DolD JSacn tbs t>an& 15 
 
 Though deep the abyss with darkness lower, 
 T is but the measure of His power 
 Who thence will raise my brother. 
 
 A Saviour to the uttermost, 
 He will not see His brother lost, 
 Nigh ruined, yet His brother. 
 
 XVII 
 
 Hold back thy hand, 
 
 And reverent stand 
 Before this image of thy God. 
 
 See in this face 
 
 Some latent trace 
 Of Him who raised thee from the sod. 
 
 Long shadows, cast 
 
 By ages past, 
 Now blur and stain this image fair; 
 
 The hate and crime 
 
 Of bygone time 
 Still guard their ancient stronghold there. 
 
i6 Gbristue IDfctor 
 
 In this dark life, 
 
 With turmoil rife, 
 But coarse and stunted flowers bloom; 
 
 Thy lilies fair 
 
 Ne er blossomed there 
 What blighting curse has been his doom ? 
 
 These records old 
 
 A tale unfold 
 Of foul disease and low desires; 
 
 Here vice now breeds 
 
 Its poison seeds, 
 Transmitted from a hundred sires. 
 
 Gaunt Famine s hand 
 
 Here placed its brand 
 Canst thou for him no pity feel ? 
 
 War s hurt and scar 
 
 These features mar, 
 Long trampled by the oppressor s heel. 
 
 Justice and Right, 
 
 Behold the blight, 
 And blush to think where lies the blame! 
 
 In this low face 
 
 See your disgrace, 
 The blood-writ story of your shame. 
 
1bolD :ac& tbg Ifoanfc 17 
 
 Here impious Greed 
 
 Doth vengeance breed, 
 Portent of wrath s insanity ; 
 
 How dare ye scorn 
 
 This wreck, storm-torn, 
 This derelict lost on life s vexed sea ! 
 
 O sons of power, 
 
 Beware the hour 
 When God to judgment summons Greed ; 
 
 In that wild day, 
 
 Though loud ye pray, 
 Your cry the avenger may not heed. 
 
 My brother, curst 
 
 With mortal thirst, 
 Ye lure where fiery lava flows ; 
 
 For gold ye sell 
 
 Fierce draughts from Hell 
 That fill a drunken world with woes. 
 
 Before you see 
 
 Humanity 
 Despoiled, disfigured ; from this face 
 
 Cry myriad slain 
 
 For lust of gain ; 
 Ah, who shall Greed s foul scars erase ? 
 
1 8 Cbrigtus IDfctot 
 
 Why must ye wait 
 
 Until too late; 
 Till Nemesis unsheathe her sword ? 
 
 Love yet might take 
 
 This wretch and make 
 A man of him! Forgive us, Lord! 
 
 From this dark heart 
 
 A stream might start, 
 Called forth by your good word or deed, 
 
 And, flowing, bless 
 
 Some wilderness 
 Whose harvests men unborn would feed. 
 
 Make less his load, 
 
 Forbear your goad ; 
 Help him to know your fairer life; 
 
 Soon, soon for all 
 
 The night will fall, 
 And hushed will be the toil and strife. 
 
 XVIII 
 
 Suppose a kindly word of mine 
 Could lift the clouds and bring sunshine; 
 Am I my brother s keeper ? 
 
t>olD JBacfc tbg IfoanD i 
 
 Suppose the weary worker toils, 
 For scanty pittance delves and moils; 
 Am I my brother s keeper ? 
 
 Suppose in penury and fear 
 My neighbor see the wolf draw near; 
 Am I my brother s keeper ? 
 
 Suppose beneath a tyrant s heel 
 Some distant nation anguish feel ; 
 Am I my brother s keeper ? 
 
 Perhaps who knows ? perhaps I m not! 
 Self-centred soul, hast thou forgot 
 The marvel of our common lot, 
 The mystic tie that binds us all 
 Who dwell on this terrestrial ball, 
 Stupendous hope of time and song, 
 The bourne for which the ages long ? 
 How hard our hearts must seem to Thee, 
 Exhaustless Fount of Charity ! 
 
 XIX 
 
 See where the sun, in fiery splendor sinking, 
 Shoots down his rays athwart the misty clouds; 
 
2 o Cbrf0tu6 IDictor 
 
 After his journey, cooling vapors drinking, 
 Ere he his face in growing darkness shrouds. 
 
 If the great sun, with life awakening power, 
 
 From ocean s breast, from stream, and lake, and 
 fen 
 
 Rich treasure draw, wherewith the earth to dower 
 When poured upon the parched ground again ; 
 
 Cannot the Lord, the will of man compelling 
 By love s attractive power to seek His face, 
 
 Awaken life where er He makes His dwelling, 
 Amid the scattered kindreds of the race ; 
 
 Awake new life, in blessed fountains flowing 
 From hearts unused to do their fellows good; 
 
 Streaming to every land, forever growing 
 Unto a universal brotherhood ? 
 
 XX 
 
 How dream-like and unstable is the form 
 That wraps the spirit in its earthly veil! 
 In ceaseless flight the winged atoms haste 
 From earth and sea and air a rescuing host 
 To build anew this fast dissolving frame 
 
1Ff a dfcan Die 21 
 
 That with each movement, with each thought casts 
 
 off 
 
 The perished cells which die that we may live. 
 This solid flesh so firm is but a shape, 
 A candle flame that seems from hour to hour 
 The same in form, unchanged in brilliancy; 
 Yet through the flame there flows a ceaseless stream 
 Of particles ablaze with heat, that give 
 Themselves its form and beauty to maintain. 
 As burns this candle flame with passing days 
 From infancy to age, what flitting shapes, 
 What weakness, vigor, and decrepitude 
 Hide from our view the ever-constant soul! 
 We feel faint stirrings of immortal youth 
 And start with wonder at our fading flesh ; 
 And when this changing mask we have outgrown 
 Or when the Lord of Life shall call us hence, 
 Then shall we suddenly be clothed upon 
 With some more glorious form of vaster powers. 
 
 XXI 
 
 T is certain thou must die, and even now 
 The lines are closing in that shall one day, 
 How soon thou knowest not converge on thee. 
 
22 Cbristus IDfctor 
 
 And when that messenger shall summon thee 
 He will not brook delay nor let thee tarry, 
 Though urgent business need thee sore, though 
 
 schemes 
 
 Long nursed by thee, from year to year, be ripe 
 Thy soul to gladden with their guerdon fair. 
 The house thou buildest thou may st not complete; 
 The ship thou loadest may not put to sea; 
 Thou may st not bid thy dearest friend farewell, 
 Nor speak thy treasured message to the world, 
 Though listening nations wait to hear thee speak. 
 "Why dost thou fear ? All men must pass that way; 
 Death would not come to all were t not a boon. 
 Lest we these rudimentary gifts should hold 
 Of too great moment are we hurried hence; 
 Love is not satisfied that we should stay 
 From our inheritance too long away ! 
 
 XXII 
 
 " Why dost thou drive me so, insatiate one ? 
 
 Is t not enough from dawn to setting sun ? 
 
 Me with all thy schemes thou dost so active keep, 
 
 I fain would find oblivion in sleep! 
 
 Once had I rest and peace ere thee I knew, 
 
flf a flfcan Die 23 
 
 Where mid the grass and flowers the wild birds 
 
 flew; 
 
 But since the day myself to thee I gave, 
 Naught hast thou done but grind me as thy slave." 
 
 " Oh, I am weary of thy long complaint, 
 Thy tales of woe, thy fears lest thou shouldst faint, 
 Thy constant cries for food, for rest, for sleep, 
 That would my strong desire in bondage keep! 
 Long have I nursed thee, waited on thy need, 
 Kept low my fires thy smouldering flame to feed ; 
 Oft wondered why thy burdens I must bear, 
 And why thou too my longing couldst not share. 
 Peace ! Had I driven thee to my full desire, 
 Long since wouldst thou have perished of my fire. 
 Soon may st thou rest amid thy grass and flowers, 
 But I shall haste away to try my immortal powers! 
 
 XXIII 
 
 The savage bending o er a pool 
 
 Beholds his image, eye to eye, 
 And gazing on that dusky face 
 
 Recoils amazed, he knows not why. 
 
24 Cbrfstus \Dictoc 
 
 At noon upon a grassy knoll 
 
 The wearied reaper scans the sky ; 
 
 The harvest grows, the cloud floats on,- 
 Has he forgot that he must die ? 
 
 The restless worker delves and dreams 
 While round the sun the seasons fly; 
 
 He builds for more than mortal years, 
 As though he were not soon to die. 
 
 High o er the city s muffled roar 
 His silent turrets greet the sky; 
 
 He soars above the sordid earth, 
 Forgetful that he there must lie. 
 
 Across the scholar s dusty page 
 The centuries toil beneath his eye; 
 
 He sees the nations rise and fall, 
 Forgetting he himself must die. 
 
 O heart, thine intuition trust, 
 
 Dream on of greater things to be ; 
 
 Thou feelest thou art more than dust, 
 And thou wouldst know thy destiny. 
 
IDoices Sweet anD ow 25 
 
 From mystic polar glaciers torn, 
 
 Impelled by mighty currents deep, 
 Slow-drifting mountain-dreams are borne, 
 
 Majestic in their onward sweep. 
 From night escaped, on crystal keel 
 
 They seek a softer, sunnier clime; 
 So drifting, dream on till thou feel 
 
 The summer-glow of endless time, 
 And melting in the ocean swell, 
 There bid thine ancient bonds farewell! 
 
 XXIV 
 A tomb was built of massive stones, 
 
 Fast clamped with many an iron band ; 
 Below, among ancestral bones, 
 
 Lay the last noble of the land. 
 
 " Closed be this tomb, these stones unmoved," 
 
 So ran the legend graven deep, 
 " Their line is done, their worth is proved, 
 
 Let them in peace forever sleep." 
 
 A tiny seed came floating by, 
 
 Borne gently on the summer breeze, 
 
 A living germ, not doomed to die, 
 Offspring of sturdy forest trees. 
 
26 Cbtiatus ItHctor 
 
 It fell to earth unheard, unseen, 
 
 Within a little crevice lay, 
 And slumbered there in peace serene, 
 
 Unknown, unnoticed, many a day. 
 
 Its rootlet slowly downward crept 
 Through narrow paths with granite walled, 
 
 Where long-dead generations slept; 
 Nor was it by the gloom appalled. 
 
 Its fibres grappled with the dead 
 
 That dwelt in ghastly grandeur there; 
 
 Upon their mouldering ashes fed, 
 Transmuting dust to verdure fair. 
 
 Into the air the seedling sped, 
 
 The tree rejoicing sought the light; 
 
 Its branches triumphed o er the dead 
 That long had lain in slumberous night. 
 
 Till, nourished by the sun and rain, 
 It gathered strength from day to day; 
 
 Then rent its mighty bonds in twain 
 And rolled the granite rocks away. 
 
 The sunlight trespassed in the tomb, 
 The breezes laughed with fragrant breath, 
 
Uoices Sweet anfc Tiovo 27 
 
 New life dispelled the ancient gloom 
 And mocked the vaunted power of death! 
 
 XXV 
 
 Hid in the chrysalis, this grovelling worm 
 Lies heedless of the storm and winter s cold, 
 Until the spring with beauty clothes the field 
 And June with roses crowns the blossoming year. 
 Then, breaking from its withered tenement, 
 Its dormant life to larger freedom wakes; 
 In splendor clothed, it flits from flower to flower, 
 With jewels on its rainbow-tinted wings, 
 A living blossom, fairest of them all ! 
 
 XXVI 
 
 I sought a lake among the peaceful hills 
 Where fairy fleets of water-lilies grow; 
 
 Each argosy rich golden treasure fills, 
 
 Around them perfume-laden breezes blow. 
 
 The lily-pads, all glistening emerald, float 
 Around me, whispering softly as I go 
 
 Sweet, murmured messages against my boat 
 To her for whom their dainty blossoms blow. 
 
28 Cbristus IDictoc 
 
 I plucked the swaying lilies, one by one, 
 
 Torn from deep moorings in the languid stream; 
 
 No more they rode at anchor in the sun, 
 
 Short snapped each dripping stem, as breaks a 
 dream. 
 
 But one proud flower the queen of all did reign ; 
 
 Its jealous stem refused to let it go; 
 I pulled, the mimic cable bore the strain 
 
 And weighed its anchor from the depths below. 
 
 This lily on her gentle breast shall lie, 
 Lo, the reluctant root has reached the light; 
 
 I started, wondering as it met my eye, 
 
 How from such foulness grew these petals bright! 
 
 Drifting, I felt the presence of the Power 
 
 That from corruption formed a child of light; 
 
 That out of blackness called this radiant flower, 
 Pure, golden-hearted, robed in spotless white! 
 
 XXVII 
 
 Within the egg, with deftly folded wing, 
 Slumbers the bird beneath the mother breast ; 
 
IDoices Sweet anD Xow 29 
 
 And when the brooding warmth has wakened it 
 From nothingness to life, his little heart 
 Throbs with a longing for new liberty ; 
 Till, breaking through the frail, confining shell, 
 He sees the light, he feels the summer breeze, 
 New life is his, and soon, with wing outstretched, 
 He spurns the nest and through the upper air, 
 Joyful in freedom, revels in the sky ! 
 
 XXVIII 
 
 Do you remember, Love, the day 
 We watched the birdling fly away, 
 That golden summer morn ? 
 
 Five, times the robins sought the vine 
 Whose wreaths around our window twine, 
 And built them there a home. 
 
 And there when all the rest had flown, 
 One timid birdie stood alone 
 
 And paused upon the verge. 
 
 The little nesfs encircling rim 
 The world s horizon was to him, 
 Scarce had he peeped beyond. 
 
30 Cbrtetus Victor 
 
 But now he yearned for greater things, 
 He longed to try his growing wings, 
 Where had his brothers flown ? 
 
 He crouched ; he took new heart to dare y 
 Leaped quivering on the untried air 
 And sought an unknown world! 
 
 As forth he flew with timid grace, 
 A tree, with proud and glad embrace, 
 Caught him in open arms. 
 
 The dewy leaves, with one so ft kiss, 
 A whisper breathed of higher bliss 
 And straightway he was gone. 
 
 XXIX 
 
 Along the beach dead shells lie strewn, cast off 
 By creatures who their narrow homes outgrew, 
 Until at length, bursting their prison bars, 
 They gained a larger life and roamed the restless 
 sea. 
 
 XXX 
 
 As once I strolled beside the sun-lit sea 
 I heard a happy, low-voiced melody, 
 
tDofces Sweet ant> Xow 31 
 
 As if, amid the breakers hiss and roar, 
 A babe were softly cooing on the shore: 
 
 The agtd ocean is my nurse, 
 
 My swaddling-band, sea-grass ; 
 The bright waves wash me in their spray, 
 
 And kiss me as they pass. 
 
 1 The storm-song is my lullaby, 
 
 I love old Ocean s voice ; 
 The flood-tides bring me dainty food, 
 
 And waking I rejoice. 
 
 " Though but a tender, pearly shell, 
 
 Safe to my rock I cling ; 
 The future has no fears for me, 
 
 Sing, Ocean, surge and sing ! 
 
 XXXI 
 
 Low hung the sky, and gray and chill, 
 The woodland missed the joyous glow 
 Of summer, faded long ago; 
 
 The moaning wind swept round the hill. 
 
 As each wild gust fled hurrying by, 
 
 Dead leaves like rainfall smote the ground; 
 
32 Cbrfstus Wctor 
 
 And, rustling with regretful sound, 
 The trees made answer with a sigh. 
 
 My heart was heavy with the thought : 
 " Must we, too, shrivel in the blast 
 Of death, and perish at the last ? 
 
 Must life s fair promise come to naught ? 
 
 " Are lives as fruitless as they seem ? 
 The future but a vision fair 
 That, fading, leaves us to despair ? 
 
 And is immortal hope a dream ? " 
 
 Nay, cheer thee, Heart, for even now 
 
 Where from the stem dead leaves are torn, 
 Lo, autumn buds of spring are born ; 
 
 And Hope is writ on every bough. 
 
 Though wintry dirges round me wail, 
 I hear the swaying branches sing, 
 I hear faint murmurs of the spring; 
 
 These buds will wake and life prevail ! 
 
 XXXII 
 
 Lo, the great earth itself with gradual change 
 Passes from year to year, from age to age, 
 
fls tbcre Bo UdorD /Bore Clear 33 
 
 Until, when time is ripe, some mighty throe 
 Rends the old order with upheavals vast, 
 With world-convulsions, with great cataclysms 
 That change the sea and continents, and bring 
 New order to the birth, with higher life ! 
 Would God from the immeasurable past 
 Evolve this world, through cycles moving slow 
 To shape the plastic earth for man s brief stay, 
 Birth-cry, a few days toil, a moan, would God 
 Have wrought for man so long, if this were all ? 
 
 XXXIII 
 
 O Mother Earth, who dost our spirits clothe 
 In garments plucked from thy maternal breast 
 On which we hang, is there no word more clear 
 No speech more simple, more articulate 
 Than thine ? We hear thy voices sweet and low, 
 And thy dumb creatures as they try to speak. 
 We see thy slumbering children wake again 
 As night retreats before advancing day. 
 We see drear winter s dead revive with spring, 
 When from the heavens life-giving sunbeams flow. 
 We see thy types ascending, step by step, 
 Where thou the story of thy life has told, 
 
34 Gbrtetus Dictor 
 
 In mystic fossil hieroglyphs inwrought 
 In adamantine rock, in furrows deep, 
 Carved by the mighty ice-plough slowly drawn 
 By thy resistless steeds. In our frail hearts 
 Hope climbs with native instinct ever higher, 
 Encouraged by thy smiles, hope vague and dim. 
 Yet art thou terrible when in thy rage 
 Panting thy bosom heaves, proud cities reel, 
 And frighted nations tremble at thine ire. 
 Thy cyclones desolate, thy lightings kill, 
 Thy gory monsters tear and thirst for blood. 
 Thy voice that once was sweet appalls ; black Night 
 O ermasters Day ; stern Winter conquers Spring. 
 How doubtful are thy hints of life to come ! 
 Thou hast no pity for the weak ; thy smiles 
 Are for the masterful, for them alone. 
 Is there no heart the feeble to befriend, 
 No arm outstretched the perishing to save ? 
 Shall I return at last to thine embrace 
 And in thy darkness rest again forever ? 
 A voice within me, foreign to thy tongue, 
 Tells of a treasure that thou hast not shown. 
 Hast thou not hidden in thy bounteous breast 
 Somewhere, O Earth, a peerless Gem whose ray 
 Thence shining forth, erelong, shall flood thy gloom, 
 
2>eatb a Conqueror 35 
 
 With light supernal glowing, yea, whose flame 
 Shall blind the sun, and put his fires to shame ? 
 
 XXXIV 
 
 See, in that rock-hewn garden sepulchre, 
 
 The Holy One of God, despised and slain, 
 
 With nail-torn hands and feet, and spear-pierced 
 
 side, 
 
 His gentle brow by mocking thorns defaced ; 
 See where He lies, obedient unto death ! 
 Into that pallid face the glow of life 
 Begins to steal, while silent and in awe 
 The heavenly watchers stand. Now they with 
 
 haste 
 
 Unwind the scented wrappings from His form 
 That fill the place with rich aromas rare, 
 Perfume of spicery and sweet spikenard s breath 
 Lingering since love her alabastron broke 
 And with her tresses wiped these tear-bathed feet. 
 And then, their joyful faces all aglow 
 Like flashing sunbeams, quickly by a touch 
 They roll away the stone with jarring shock, 
 As if an earthquake passed, and sitting there 
 Behold their Lord go forth, Death s Conqueror ! 
 
3 6 Cbristus Victor 
 
 XXXV 
 
 Emancipator of the slaves of fear, 
 Arise victorious from the tomb. 
 
 Thou hast explored its caverns drear 
 And rent its veil of gloom. 
 
 From age to age Thy liberating voice 
 Death s myriad captives hath set free; 
 
 At Thy glad summons they rejoice 
 In immortality. 
 
 What kings and ancient prophets longed to see, 
 
 In noon-tide glory now appears 
 Unto the poor revealed by Thee, 
 
 Clear-shining through their tears. 
 
 The helpless in Thy bosom Thou dost bear, 
 The weary lean upon Thy heart ; 
 
 From troubled souls Thou liftest care, 
 Thy peace Thou dost impart. 
 
Emancipator 37 
 
 To pastures new Thou leadest day by day, 
 O Shepherd true, Thy flocks defend, 
 
 Lest evil seize us in the way 
 And wolves the weaklings rend. 
 
 Thy peerless word, sweet-voiced in every tongue, 
 
 Invites the sons of every clime; 
 Thought-Leader Thou, Earth s great among, 
 
 Ideal of all time. 
 
 The thoughts of men Thou leadest after Thee, 
 Thy Spirit moves upon the deep; 
 
 What cause doth spurn Thy majesty 
 Shall in oblivion sleep. 
 
 Thy form unseen, Thou livest evermore 
 
 With men, the heavens and earth are met 
 
 Did Love Almighty e er before 
 Such fellowship beget! 
 
38 dbttetus liMctor 
 
 How shapes Thy hand the movements of mankind, 
 Kingdoms like billows rise and fall; 
 
 How patient guides Thy master mind 
 Where sin disfigures all, 
 
 Evolving slow the vast, harmonious whole, 
 Member to member, part to part; 
 
 Mankind the body, Love the soul, 
 Thou the life-giving Heart! 
 
 Love-driven and sorrowing, gentle Prince of Peace, 
 Thou sendest forth the awakening sword ; 
 
 How bleeds Thy heart till war shall cease, 
 Grim servant of the Lord 
 
 That with deep, ruthless plough the soil doth tear 
 
 To fit it for Thy precious seed, 
 Till West with East the harvest share, 
 
 And both Thy bounty feed. 
 
39 
 
 of peace fly switt at Thy command, 
 War s desolations to make good, 
 And closer weave from land to land 
 New ties of brotherhood. 
 
 The seething ferment of the world s unrest 
 Is but the leaven hid by Thee, 
 
 Till from the turmoil, froth, and quest 
 Thou lead men pure and free. 
 
 World-Healer, Good Physician, wise and calm, 
 Though fierce our fevered pulses burn, 
 
 Outpour for us Thy soothing balm 
 Till we Thy quiet learn. 
 
 The Orient star that lit Thy lowly birth 
 E en to the Occident shall shine again, 
 
 Till Thou refresh the waiting earth, 
 O Light and Life of men! 
 
40 Cbrtetus Dictoc 
 
 A thrill of coming blessing and accord 
 
 Whispers to men the mystery; 
 The winds are heralding the Lord, 
 
 All eyes are bent on Thee. 
 
 Thou drawest, All-searching Lodestone, evermore 
 With mighty sweep from pole to pole 
 
 Increasing hosts from every shore, 
 Thyself, Thy heart the goal. 
 
 But not from Earth alone shalt Thou have praise; 
 
 Unnumbered worlds shall hear Thy call, 
 And high the swelling triumph raise 
 
 Till Love has conquered all. 
 
 XXXVI 
 
 Hail Victor, First-born from the dead! 
 Open our eyes to see Thy radiant face; 
 Make us to feel Thy presence, know Thy grace, 
 
 From glory unto glory led. 
 
41 
 
 Thou whom the grave could not retain, 
 Nor Roman guard, nor envious seal confine, 
 Break Thou our fetters with a touch divine, 
 
 Help us Thy liberty to gain. 
 
 Thou Lord and Brother of mankind, 
 The past, the present, and the times to be 
 With growing expectation look to Thee, 
 
 The world s Deliverer to find. 
 
 Bring to our darkened minds new light, 
 Diffuse Thy quickening radiance far and near ; 
 Vanquish the might of sin, dispel our fear 
 
 And let Thy day o erwhelm our night. 
 
 Wake our dull souls from drowsy sleep, 
 Let us not here be fully satisfied; 
 Help us to rise with Thee to worlds untried, 
 
 Lead Thou the way and near us keep! 
 
 XXXVII 
 
 What powers now vaguely felt with longing deep, 
 What tireless strength where now we sleep or faint, 
 
42 Gbrfstue ItHctor 
 
 What daring courage where our hearts now fail, 
 What joy of life and freedom shall be ours! 
 How shall our hands reach back in sympathy 
 To those still hampered by the weight of flesh; 
 How shall we run with eager, flying feet 
 To meet our loved ones on that radiant shore 
 And love s full rapture know for evermore ! 
 
 XXXVIII 
 
 my Beloved, wait, 
 Swiftly the changeful seasons fly ; 
 I am coming, my Love, though late, 
 The hour is drawing nigh. 
 
 Wait, my Belovld, wait, 
 
 Stray not too far through regions fair ; 
 I am coming, my Love, though late, 
 
 And I must find thee there. 
 
 Wait, my Belovld, wait, 
 
 1 fear lest thou outgrow thy mate 
 And I should come too late, too late ; 
 
 Wait, O Belov ed, wait. 
 
Bnastasis 43 
 
 XXXIX 
 
 Was it an answer to my cry, 
 Or but a zephyr floating by, 
 
 A whisper or a sigh ? 
 
 
 
 " Love is not dead" it seemed to say, 
 " Love never will be far away y 
 / too await that day. 
 
 " Love will not go beyond its own ; 
 The more of bliss I here have known, 
 The dearer hast thou grown. 
 
 " Love is not dwarfed by upward flight \ 
 Nor dazzled by celestial light \ 
 Nor lost in Heaven s delight. 
 
 " Nay, when thou com st to seek me, Dear, 
 I thy jirst wondering cry will hear. 
 Beloved, have no fear ! 
 
 4 4 Nor height nor depth shall separate j 
 There is no coming home too late j 
 Be patient, Love, and wait!" 
 
44 Gbristue Dlctor 
 
 XL 
 
 From some commanding height that rears its crest 
 Above the mists and clouds of earth, down looking 
 Shall we not through that pure and tranquil air, 
 See all our half-forgotten journey spread 
 Below us like a landscape at our feet; 
 The joyous, bloom-clad hills, the sunny plains, 
 The quiet hamlet nestling in the shade, 
 The city murmuring low of strife and toil, 
 The mountains proudly lifting up their heads 
 Where fleecy clouds float softly up the steep 
 Whose sturdy front has many a storm defied; 
 The perilous descent, the dark ravine, 
 And, black with gloom, the terrible abyss; 
 Swift-flowing rivers flashing in the sun, 
 The lake with islands on its peaceful breast, 
 Foul, stagnant fens and pools, the dark morass, 
 And, bounding all, that great mysterious sea 
 Whose waters bore us to the shores of time ? 
 Then shall the various paths by which we came 
 Wind with a meaning far more bright and clear 
 Than when we trod those once familiar ways. 
 
Snaetasts 45 
 
 XLI 
 
 Did early hope 
 
 Dream of a gentler slope, 
 
 Tuneful with Spring s alluring roundelay, 
 
 And bright 
 
 With cloudless light 
 
 Poured on thy joyful way ? 
 
 Ah, courage keep j 
 
 Press on and scale the steep 
 
 Till thou the last sharp, rugged crag shalt climb ; 
 
 There shalt thou gain a view far more sublime, 
 
 And fairer seem thy track 
 
 When looking back ! 
 
 XLII 
 
 Shall we not see life s mystery made plain, 
 
 A.S some fair pictured tapestry that seems 
 
 Upon its nether side, beneath the hand 
 
 Df him who weaves, naught but disordered threads 
 
 A.nd colors in a wild confusion mixed; 
 
 While on the upper surface shine the forms 
 
 3f beauty, and the colors rich and rare 
 
 That had their birth deep in the master s mind, 
 
46 GbristuB \Dictor 
 
 There glowing ere they saw the light of day ? 
 
 Or like a painted vase, whose noble shape 
 
 Is overspread with pigments crude and dull, 
 
 That by their discord seem its form to mar, 
 
 Until the artist gives it to the fire 
 
 Whose fierce, relentless breath upon it pours, 
 
 Making the colors blossom in the flame, 
 
 Rich and resplendent in their harmony ? 
 
 Shall we not be like some o erweary child 
 
 From whose limp fingers slips the tedious task, 
 
 And, while it slumbers, Mother s gentle hands 
 
 Undo the stitches; all the tangled threads 
 
 In order lay, and when the child awakes 
 
 Its tears have changed to smiles, its troubles fled ? 
 
 XLIII 
 
 Sleep, child of my love, Mother watches thy slumber, 
 No more shall his troubles her darling annoy ; 
 
 The cares that distressed thee, so many in number, 
 Her hand will undo them, sleep sweetly, my boy. 
 
 O child of my love, that my fingers might ever 
 Thy troubles remove, and swift succor afford ; 
 
Snaetasfs 47 
 
 Or wilt thou, my hero, the tangled cords sever 
 
 That fain would thee bind, with one blow of thy 
 sword? 
 
 Peace, child of my love, Mother watches thee sleeping, 
 She longs for thy waking, as night for the day ; 
 
 Thy mother ivith singing her love-watch is keeping 
 While baby is smiling, in dreamland at play. 
 
 XLIV 
 
 How tenderly doth mother-love embrace 
 
 All creatures, yea, the very earth enfolding! 
 
 See gentle Night with softly soothing touch 
 
 Lulling her child to sweet forgetfulness 
 
 Where, bowing low, the assiduous Galaxy, 
 
 The All-Mother, broods the weary, slumberous 
 
 Earth, 
 
 From rim to rim of the horizon bent, 
 All love, her flowing garments wove of stars! 
 
 XLV 
 
 What splendors on my soul will break 
 When I from death s chill night awake! 
 
48 Cbristus IDictor 
 
 How will mine eyes endure the light 
 Streaming upon their dazed sight ? 
 
 Whose touch will rouse me from my sleep ? 
 What form will o er me vigil keep ? 
 
 And when I feel that presence near 
 Shall 1 not be o ercome with fear ? 
 
 How shall I look upon that face 
 So full of majesty and grace ? 
 
 Or shall I cross the ghostly stream 
 Without a sleep, without a dream ; 
 Unknowing drift from shore to shore, 
 Dim earth behind, sunrise before; 
 Untroubled by the strident gale, 
 Unconscious of the straining sail, 
 All unawares the voyage make 
 From life to life without a break ? 
 
 Ah, waiting Love will meet us there, 
 And mid the glories of that land 
 Will gently lead us by the hand 
 
 Until our eyes the light can bear! 
 
Snastaste 49 
 
 XLVI 
 
 Soul, in thy Father s home the skies are fair, 
 There shalt thou breathe a pure, refreshing air, 
 Shalt bathe thy wounds in limpid morning light, 
 Rest, and forget the turmoil and the fight. 
 
 When thou art rested shalt thou then explore 
 A wonder-land of beauty, and adore 
 The Hand that leads thee, as each new surprise 
 Rises sublime on thy bewildered eyes. 
 
 How insubstantial now earth s fading dream, 
 How like reality these marvels seem ! 
 So blind thou wast with strange perversity, 
 That thou the shadows only then couldst see! 
 
 No troubled night shall end the happy day; 
 No longer Right before the Wrong give way; 
 There love shall bear its fruit through endless time, 
 And life grow full and strong in that fair clime. 
 
 XLVII 
 
 What joy to know the great of centuries past, 
 Heroes and sages and the patriarchs old, 
 
50 Cbrtetus IDictor 
 
 Leaders of men in every land and age, 
 
 Not bowed and hoary with unnumbered years, 
 
 But from earth s greatness to full stature grown, 
 
 Majestic now in manhood s glorious prime; 
 
 To sit at rest in that great company, 
 
 With those we love, and drink deep draughts of 
 
 lore 
 And wisdom from the masters of all time! 
 
 XLVIII 
 
 No more these warriors lead their fellow-men 
 To bleed for glory on the battle-field, 
 Nor devastate the earth to crown their pride; 
 For greater wars and larger conquests now, 
 With late-born zeal to serve their God and kind, 
 They marshal heavenly hosts to vanquish wrong 
 Where er it lingers in the universe, 
 Life-healing blossom of a noxious seed, 
 Strange fruitage of earth s strife for mastery! 
 
 XLIX 
 
 And these who scoffed at Heaven and holy things, 
 Made light and mocked where angels look with awe, 
 
Bnagtasis 51 
 
 Seeing how short their sight, how vast their loss 
 Poor dazed night-birds blinking at the day 
 In deep humiliation own their shame. 
 
 L 
 
 No more these sages in their nightly watch 
 With feeble glass shall scan the starry vast, 
 To measure suns and count the glittering orbs; 
 No longer mocked and baffled by defeat, 
 With clearer vision they explore the sky 
 And read the secrets of the firmament. 
 
 LI 
 
 These dauntless souls who, loyal to their Lord, 
 Refused to bow the knee at Error s shrine, 
 Who scorned release at cost of truth betrayed, 
 Counting one man with God a greater host 
 Than armed multitudes upholding wrong; 
 Unconquered by the rack, or flame s fierce breath, 
 The tiger s cruel fangs, the lion s fury, 
 Thought it but gain to die, so Truth might live; 
 Meekly the shame and agony endured, 
 As seeing Him who is invisible. 
 
52 Gbristus IDictor 
 
 LII 
 
 Lovers of truth and man no more despair 
 Of right, or suffer cruel martyrdom ; 
 The ebbing tide is out, and now the sea, 
 Turning in strength, sweeps all before its flood! 
 
 LIII 
 
 And these who in each soul, howe er defiled, 
 
 Beheld a brother and a child of God ; 
 
 Who loved their fellows well and strove to ease 
 
 The heavy burdens of their earthly lot; 
 
 To waken dead hearts with the thought sublime 
 
 That all are children of the Almighty One, 
 
 Immortal heirs of a great heritage, 
 
 These shall behold the glorious brotherhood 
 
 For which they longed and wrought, at last com 
 
 plete, 
 The universal family of God. 
 
 LIV 
 
 No more with patient toil these scholars trace 
 For men in dusty tomes the word of life, 
 And seek the truth in ancient palimpsest, 
 
Bnastasis 53 
 
 Often with scorn and hatred as reward. 
 Now speak they with the Living Word and learn 
 How simple is the truth, how plain the way; 
 Himself the glorious Truth for which they sought, 
 Himself the Way, the Light, the Life of men. 
 
 LV 
 
 And these rapt lovers of the Heart of Things, 
 
 Who saw the grace of flowering field and vale, 
 
 The mystic shade of forests flecked with light, 
 
 The purple mist upon far distant hills, 
 
 The rush of seas, the storm s wild majesty; 
 
 Who felt the throbbing of a rhythmic pulse 
 
 And in the face of Nature saw her soul ; 
 
 Who in her myriad voices heard one voice 
 
 That told them of her ancient mysteries; 
 
 Heard too in dreamy murmur of the breeze, 
 
 In bird song and the insect s drowsy note, 
 
 In sweet complainings of the wandering brook, 
 
 Melodious strains of nature s symphony; 
 
 Who saw the blush of dawn, the noon-tide pomp, 
 
 The stately splendor of declining day, 
 
 The melancholy twilight and the spell 
 
 Cast o er the sleeping earth by the pale moon, 
 
 Filling the charmed air with floating forms 
 
54 Cbristus Victor 
 
 Drifting like fleecy clouds around the fair 
 
 Mistress of amorous Endymion, 
 
 Enamored of the peerless Queen of Night; 
 
 Who, when the moonbeams slept, with awe beheld 
 
 The midnight glory, the triumphal march 
 
 Of constellations through the star-lit waste; 
 
 Who strove in toil and want and cold neglect 
 
 To show a heedless world with brush and pen 
 
 And chisel, fragments of their visions fair, 
 
 And to interpret to their fellow-men 
 
 The deepest passions of the human heart, 
 
 These now are blest with clearer light, and know 
 
 The full fruition of their earthly dreams, 
 
 And loftier raptures of creative joy! 
 
 LVI 
 
 These others who, though lowly, still were true, 
 In meekness following where their feet were led, 
 Steadfast in duty, vast uncounted throng 
 That never knew how shining were their deeds, 
 Nor dreamed how fruitful was the seed they sowed, 
 Now sparkle, jewels in His treasury 
 Who doth with foolish things confound the wise 
 And with weak things the mighty bring to naught. 
 
Bnastasfs 55 
 
 LVII 
 
 Ah, not in slothful ease shall we recline 
 And dream away our new existence sweet; 
 The dream is past, and life, more life is ours! 
 With ever new desire shall we ascend 
 Those paths that climb o er glorious heights to Him 
 Whose beckoning hand forever leads the way. 
 No dreary days of care, no nights of pain, 
 No swiftly flying years that drag us on 
 With cruel haste to meet the dreaded end, 
 The end is past and time shall be no more! 
 No more our little boats we daily launch 
 To creep in fear along our native shore, 
 But out upon the boundless ocean sail, 
 Free to explore the wonders of the deep. 
 Or sent as messengers of Love Divine, 
 Knights-errant to protect the weak from harm, 
 To aid the brave contending for the right 
 And from unequal odds wrest victory; 
 To turn a sinning brother from his sin 
 And help him forward on his homeward way, 
 What sights of beauty shall our eyes behold 
 As, in vast journeys through the unnumbered 
 
 worlds, 
 We view the many mansions of the sky! 
 
56 Gbristus Wctor 
 
 LVIII 
 It may be God has some far-reaching plan 
 
 Of life, some vast and wonderful design 
 
 Embracing all creation, more benign 
 Than aught that ever charmed the heart of man; 
 
 Ah, who can tell! 
 The seed that for a thousand years lay buried out 
 
 of sight, 
 Till, mid a later race of men, it burst upon the 
 
 light, 
 
 May hide within it energies hereafter to be told, 
 Attesting its Creator s might with marvels manifold. 
 The vine that buds and withers at my door 
 May bear its fragrant blossoms on a shore 
 
 Where summer never fades. 
 The insect flitting through a single day 
 May murmur praises somewhere far away 
 
 In ever verdant glades. 
 The little builder of the aerial arch 
 
 With flying banneret and silken dome 
 
 May in some future home 
 As the long ages march, 
 Growing in skill and understanding, build 
 More lasting temples with mute worship filled. 
 
 Dumb creatures eyes 
 
Gloria in Bjcetets 57 
 
 That often look so wistfully at me ^ 
 I, wondering, may hereafter see 
 Beneath celestial skies. 
 And every bird that greets the dawn, 
 Or seeks its food upon the dewy lawn, 
 Or wanders free and fearless in the height, 
 Or throws its melancholy plaint upon the night, 
 May in some cloudless country who shall 
 
 say ? 
 
 Rejoice in larger life, and sing alway 
 His praises, every creature chanting: All is well! 
 Yea, every beast at whose terrific voice the forests 
 
 tremble 
 May, when the forces of Almighty Love at last 
 
 assemble 
 With his full diapason swell the harmony of praise. 
 
 And every creature that is in the heavens 
 And on the earth and under it and such 
 As dwell within the sea, yea all therein, 
 I heard say: " Blessing, honor, glory, power 
 Be unto Him that sitteth on the throne, 
 And to the Lamb, forever and forever." 
 
 Methinks the tide of life that flows from God 
 Will strew no useless wreckage oh the strand, 
 
58 Cbcistus Wctor 
 
 Nor leave a periwinkle perishing for food 
 In any inlet where it once has poured its flood; 
 But rolling on with mighty surges vast, 
 Life sprung from God, too vital to be lost 
 In dark oblivion or to chaos tossed, 
 Will somehow bless all creatures at the last 
 Through evolutions infinitely grand. 
 
 Man craves for mystery; here is one indeed 
 As deep, as high, as boundless as his need; 
 Go ponder well before, with rule and line, 
 You take the measure of the Love Divine! 
 
 LIX 
 
 What forms now dimly seen, what symphonies 
 
 Of music unimaginably sweet, 
 
 In that glad life shall be our heritage! 
 
 Singing for joy the little ones of earth, 
 
 Where once they lived a moment and were gone, 
 
 Like flocking birds a countless multitude 
 
 Innumerable as the buds of spring 
 
 In rosy clouds of cherub faces bright 
 
 Like mists of dawn aglow with coming day, 
 
 Fill all the happy heavens with ecstasy; 
 
Gloria in Bjcelsis 59 
 
 As larks a-wing, though hidden in the sky, 
 Pour forth their carols to the listening earth 
 And flood the air with waves of melody: 
 
 LX 
 
 Dew drops twinkling in the sun 
 Ere the day has scarce begun, 
 In Thy golden light we shine, 
 Ever happy, ever Thine ; 
 In Thy hand, so safe and sure, 
 Hold Thy little jewels pure. 
 
 Thou from sin hast kept us free, 
 Lord, we raise our song to Thee : 
 Thou didst give us human birth, 
 And a moment on the earth, 
 That we might Thine image bear, 
 Children of Thy love and care. 
 
 Those whose love about us twined, 
 In whose hearts we were enshrined, 
 We will lead to realms above, 
 We will comfort with our love, 
 
 We will lead them home to Thee 
 
 
 
 Home for all eternity. 
 
60 Gbrtetus IDictoc 
 
 LXI 
 
 Softly a summer breeze begins to blow 
 
 Through woodlands, faint with heat of sultry noon, 
 
 Each slumbering leaf awakening with a kiss. 
 
 A murmur of delight flows quickly on 
 
 Through whispering boughs, as stronger grows the 
 
 wind, 
 
 And all the trees their swaying branches wave, 
 Till from the rocking forest, far and wide, 
 A swelling chorus rises to the sky. 
 So when some patient one, through stress and 
 
 storm, 
 
 Enters that harbor of eternal rest, 
 Or when some weary prodigal returns 
 From sin, to seek again his Father s house, 
 Some ancient giant wrong on earth goes down 
 Before the overwhelming charge of right, 
 And the world moves a little nearer Heaven ; 
 When, by the mandate of Creative Power, 
 Some orb, new-born and flaming in its course, 
 Speeds through the trackless heavens to do His 
 
 will, 
 
 Or when the Lord of Hosts His spirit breathes 
 On the fierce passions of rebellious men 
 And leads them willing captives to the throne 
 
(Blorfa in jgjcelsfs 61 
 
 Of Love Omnipotent, then from that vast 
 
 And thronging multitude shall one sweet voice 
 
 Utter a note of praise and victory; 
 
 And other voices, joining in the song, 
 
 Pass it from host to host, from world to world, 
 
 Until with grandeur past all human thought, 
 
 The anthem rises in exultant strains, 
 
 And the melodious tide of music flows 
 
 Through glowing aisles and sparkling arches high, 
 
 A lofty oratorio of praise! 
 
 LXII 
 
 What raptured chords like floating incense rise: 
 Hark how each home-returning host replies! 
 Now they relate how they have served our race, 
 And trophies lay before the Throne of Grace ; 
 Now from the Lord of Life new powers receive 
 And hasten forth new triumphs to achieve. 
 \round the Throne like seas they ebb and flow, 
 Love s willing messengers they come and go, 
 Him serving whose Almighty Name they bear, 
 Eager with mortal men their joy to share. 
 Mow with soft warblings, now with bird-like call, 
 sweet cherubs carol songs antiphonal. 
 
62 Cbrtetus Dictor 
 
 I hear them sing, faint echoes reach my ear; 
 Those tones I know, the words I cannot hear! 
 
 LXIII 
 
 What joy for us, with evil once oppressed, 
 With discord and the mystery of life 
 That o er our earthy way dark shadows cast 
 And filled our hearts with restless questioning, 
 Bathed on those heavenly heights in cloudless light 
 To watch God s purpose ripen, and to see 
 The strong and feeble come, the old and young, 
 The high and low of earth by many ways! 
 
 LXIV 
 
 These come in haste, as flies the eager dove 
 O er land and sea, swift to her distant home, 
 Where safe from harm her nestlings lie in peace; 
 They saw the light celestial from afar 
 And pause not till they reach their journey s goal; 
 Chosen of God, elect to lead the way 
 Before the countless hosts that follow them, 
 Slow struggling out of darkness into light. 
 
 LXV 
 
 These grope in darkness with dull, blinded eyes 
 That cannot see the day that waits for them. 
 
B fflooD of Souls 63 
 
 Fill at the breaking of some heavenly dawn 
 With greater glory than the midday sun, 
 Flashes the light eternal on their night, 
 Through earthly films, like lightning in the gloom! 
 
 LXVI 
 
 These, footsore and with travel worn, retrace 
 
 Their wilful steps through rugged, thorny paths, 
 
 Scourged by the cruel scorpion-whips of sin 
 
 Stern justice of inexorable Love 
 
 Until they loathe the hateful thing that barred 
 
 The way and from their birthright shut them out; 
 
 And there repenting of their sin, turn back 
 
 [n shame to drag their weary feet toward home, 
 
 Stript of the vain habiliments of earth, 
 
 Wherein they trusted once for place and power ; 
 
 Least where ambition would have placed them 
 
 highest, 
 
 Starvelings though glutted with the husks of sin, 
 Stunted and shriveling in their nakedness, 
 Abashed and overwhelmed amid the throng 
 Of radiant beings, strong in life undying 
 And in the front, lo, those their sin did hurt, 
 Their victims once, when on the earth they dwelt, 
 
64 Cbristug Dictor 
 
 Come forth to welcome them and to forgive ! 
 Whose wondering eyes in pity on them turn ; 
 Whose whispered words of high encouragement 
 Long dormant manhood waken in their breasts; 
 Who haste to give them joy as fast they come, 
 Borne Heavenward on love s buoyant atmosphere; 
 Drawn by the Heart once pierced for them on 
 
 earth, 
 
 Still pierced by human sin, till sin shall cease; 
 Drawn by the Love Divine they long did spurn, 
 Now kindling in their hearts its deathless passion. 
 
 LXVII 
 
 Behold this vast, innumerable host 
 From fireside, field and war s dread carnage flow 
 ing 
 
 A mighty flood of souls from every land, 
 Whose billows break upon the Heavenly strand ! 
 
 LXVIII 
 
 Love is the Lord of Life, whose rhythmic breath 
 All nature animates, Sovereign of Death; 
 Like ocean billows proudly tossing high 
 Their foam-flecked manes against a stormy sky 
 
5R jfloofc ot Soute 65 
 
 That, heaving, break, and falling at His feet, 
 Plash on the footstool of His mercy-seat 
 He sees the generations toward Him roll 
 And knows the need of every human soul; 
 Lights worlds untold with mighty solar fires 
 And satisfies alone man s deep desires. 
 
 LXIX 
 
 No murky Styx, no poison river pours 
 
 Its deadly waters with pollution foul 
 
 Upon those blooming fields so bright and fair, 
 
 To desecrate the purity of Heaven. 
 
 The countless mingled waves of this vast stream, 
 
 Though borne in muddy torrents, or through black 
 
 And miry swampland, though on earth defiled 
 
 With many a stain and dark impurity, 
 
 Though dyed with blood and mixed with bitter tears, 
 
 Shall by the alchemy of that pure soil 
 
 Through which they flow upon their Heavenward 
 
 course, 
 
 And by the sunlight s clarifying power 
 Life-giving sunlight of Almighty Love 
 So like to crystal shine that when they break 
 Upon celestial shores they shall make glad 
 With sounding praise the city of our God! 
 
66 Gbrf0tus Victor 
 
 LXX 
 
 No little rivulet is this, confined 
 By narrow banks that fret its doubtful way; 
 All souls drift on the waters of this flood 
 Long as the course of time, wide as the world, 
 Deep as the heart s profound desire, the great 
 Home-coming of the human family! 
 
 LXXI 
 
 Blest city, fairer than a blissful dream, 
 Home of my love, my longing soul s desire, 
 In whose fair golden courts my loved ones wait, 
 Homesick, afar, thy joys I faintly see! 
 Fade not so soon from my enraptured sight; 
 Glow, crystal walls; with light ethereal glow! 
 Sparkle with precious gems, O ramparts high! 
 Ye mighty bulwarks and foundations, blaze 
 With sapphire, emerald, and amethyst! 
 Ye glorious gates of pearl, stand open wide 
 To welcome home the children of your King! 
 Ah ! not till His last child has entered in 
 The last, lone, weary soul from the dead earth- 
 Will God our Father bid you, portals fair, 
 Upon your golden hinges, joyful swing; 
 To sin and sorrow shut, to night and death! 
 
B JflOOD Of SOU10 67 
 
 LXXII 
 
 And as I think upon that mystic flood, 
 Vast and resistless in its onward sweep, 
 Hid in the shadows of antiquity, 
 Flowing to ages yet unborn and dim, 
 Stretching beyond the reach of mortal eye, 
 My heart stands still in wonder at the sight, 
 Awed and subdued by its immensity! 
 
 LXXIII 
 
 O Christ, have our poor feeble minds conceived 
 
 A work too mighty for Thy saving power ? 
 
 Have our fond hopes too great a burden laid 
 
 Upon Thy heart ? Are universal peace 
 
 And concord sweet, evil destroyed, the right 
 
 Victorious, God everywhere enthroned 
 
 In willing hearts, are these some vision fair, 
 
 The fleeting glory of a night, to fade 
 
 When we awake to the reality ? 
 
 Lord, do we touch the border of Thy robe ? 
 
 Do we behold the outline of Thy plan ? 
 
 Is this a foretaste of immortal bliss ? 
 
 Or are we by some flitting light deceived; 
 
 Lured to perdition by a mocking dream ? 
 
63 dbrfstua Dictor 
 
 LXXIV 
 
 Have we not read that Thou one day will sit 
 Upon Thy glorious Throne to judge the world, 
 All nations gathered in vast concourse there ? 
 That Thou in dread assize wilt judgment pass ? 
 That Thou the good and evil wilt divide, 
 As from his sheep the shepherd parts his goats ? 
 That Thou the good to heavenly joys wilt call ? 
 That all the wicked Thou wilt there condemn 
 To suffer never-ending punishment 
 And from Thy sight forever exiled be, 
 With demons cursed in everlasting fire ? 
 
 LXXV 
 
 How have these words of fear from age to age, 
 Like some deep-tolling signal bell of doom, 
 Sounded hope s knell and ushered in despair, 
 By priestly craft enslaved the souls of men, 
 Sanctioned the torment of the rack and stake, 
 Made reason reel and totter from her throne, 
 Crushed bleeding hearts that mourned for loved 
 
 ones lost 
 
 Lost if Thy love go not beyond the grave, 
 And with the bridal garments of Thy church 
 Mixed the habiliments of hopeless woe! 
 
Beonfal pruning 69 
 
 LXXVI 
 
 When from the language of the Orient, 
 
 So warm with symbol and hyperbole, 
 
 Thy words to our cold, Western speech are brought, 
 
 How oft do men their better meaning miss, 
 
 To rigid dogma freeze thine imagery! 
 
 LXXVII 
 
 How many souls indignant at this tale 
 
 Of Heaven s injustice, spurn the proffered bliss 
 
 And turn away in loathing from a God 
 
 Called Love, called Light, clothed with almighty 
 
 power, 
 
 Who in the name of justice could inflict 
 Upon His children, sinful though they be, 
 Torment and cruel agony, such as they 
 On their worst enemy would scorn to lay. 
 
 LXXVIII 
 
 Men in their hearts despise this Mighty One, 
 Powerless to guide the souls that He has made! 
 How many brave, unselfish ones have grieved 
 
70 dbrtetua Victor 
 
 For those they loved through sin and shame, 
 
 though dead 
 
 In unrepented sin, and without hope, 
 With broken hearts, have longed to go to them, 
 Careless of Heaven, if they might share their 
 
 fate ; 
 So noble and so strong is human love ! 
 
 LXXIX 
 
 How long, how long shall Terror sit enthroned, 
 
 With iron heel to crush the hearts of men 
 
 And rule the world by fear, where Love should 
 
 reign ? 
 
 O Christ, forgive the wrong that we have done, 
 The cruel words that we have made Thee speak. 
 
 LXXX 
 
 Didst Thou not rather say that ere the last 
 
 Of those that heard Thy words should taste of 
 
 death, 
 
 Jerusalem the Holy, recreant to 
 Her Lord, the King of Kings, should meet her 
 
 doom 
 In such o erwhelming sorrow that the sun 
 
Beonial pruning n 
 
 And moon should veil their faces at the sight, 
 The pitying skies drop stars upon the earth 
 As tears, in sympathy with Zion s woe, 
 And all the powers of heaven should shaken be, 
 In consternation at her overthrow; 
 That then the Chosen People of the Lord 
 Should see the ancient order pass away 
 And desolation stalk throughout their land; 
 That Thou among all nations of the earth 
 Wouldst then Thy kingdom found on LOVE TO MAN 
 And deeds of love should supersede the Law; 
 That service to Thy brethren Thou wouldst take 
 As service done unto Thyself; that they 
 Who on the weak and helpless took no pity 
 Should go henceforth, not to unending woe- 
 Else wert Thou casting off who need Thee most 
 But, self -cursed by their selfishness and sin, 
 Suffer seonial, purifying fires 
 Within the soul, where er the soul may be, 
 All else stript off, soul face to face with God, 
 Suffer a just, reforming chastisement, 
 ^Eonial pruning, sharply cutting off 
 Their dead and withered branches, till they bear 
 Fruit for Thy garner, pleasingjn Thy sight; 
 That neath Thy rule this law unchanged should be; 
 
72 <Jbrf0tu0 Dtctor 
 
 That now and evermore at this tribunal 
 Nations and men for judgment must appear 
 By Thy criterion of LOVE TO MAN ? 
 Lo, they who know not love know not yet God: 
 For God is love, and this is life eternal: 
 God and His Son to know, whom He hath sent, 
 Not knowing whom is death, eternal death. 
 Thy judgments are eternal, timeless, lift 
 Clean out of space, above all circumstance. 
 Ah, what is space that it should hem Thee in ? 
 Or what is time that it should limit Thee ? 
 For space is naught but a star-dusty scroll, 
 And fleeting time a brief and broken line 
 In Thy grand epic of eternity! 
 
 LXXXI 
 
 Thou Patient One, how must Thou grieve to see 
 The slow, hard heart of man obscure Thy light 
 As doth the moon, with narrow, darkling disc, 
 Eclipse the sun s resplendent face at noon! 
 
 LXXXII 
 
 O gentle Shepherd, Thou didst tell of one 
 Who sought his wilful, straying sheep afar . 
 Until he found it in the wilderness. 
 
IDC Sou0bt until 1bc jf cunfc 73 
 
 He did not seek awhile till night came on 
 
 And the dark river lay across his path, 
 
 And there turn back and leave his sheep to die, 
 
 Torn by the wolves upon the mountain-side. 
 
 Not so short-lived and fickle was his love; 
 
 He sought until he found, and laying then 
 
 His sheep upon his shoulders, homeward turned 
 
 And to his flock and fold rejoicing came. 
 
 Lord, in that Shepherd Thou Thyself didst show; 
 
 No cry of pain unheeded smites Thine ear, 
 
 No dusky river bounds Thy searching love; 
 
 Thou art not Saviour on the earth and then 
 
 When Death is past, a stern, relentless Judge. 
 
 We trust Thy never-ending love, the same 
 
 From ancient days till now, from now till Thou 
 
 At last Thy flock complete to God shalt bring; 
 
 Thy flock ingathered from a thousand hills 
 
 Of Earth, and from the shining plains of Heaven ; 
 
 Yea, from the abode of terror and despair; 
 
 From east, from west, from height, from depth they 
 
 come, 
 
 One flock, one Shepherd, one rejoicing fold, 
 All wanderers found, all foes by Thee subdued, 
 Subdued by love, not fear, All-Conquering One, 
 Lord of the living and the dead! 
 
74 Cbrtetus Wictor 
 
 LXXXIII 
 
 O Christ, 
 
 If God is Love and Light and if in Him 
 No darkness is, then love and light should lead, 
 And following these shall I not find the truth ? 
 
 LXXXIV 
 
 Thou didst call God our Father, whose great heart 
 Burning with love for the rash prodigal, 
 His lost and wayward son, could not await 
 His coming, but with eager haste ran forth, 
 As from afar He saw him nearing home, 
 Weary of sin; and falling on his neck, 
 Rejoiced that He had found His child again. 
 Thou didst call God our Father, Thou didst show 
 This Pole Star set to guide us in the night, 
 And any path that leads not toward that Star 
 Leads not to truth, but to some evil snare 
 Of man s device, or to some precipice! 
 
 LXXXV 
 
 OUR FATHER! When the Son of God went forth 
 To war upon the oppressions of the world, 
 
ur ffatber 75 
 
 To break the power of tyrants, and to storm 
 The strongholds of a thousand ancient wrongs 
 Entrenched in hoary rite and privilege, 
 He girt no flaming sword upon His thigh, 
 Nor at each giant evil hurled defiance, 
 Nor let His legions loose upon the foe. 
 Ah no! Apparelled in simplicity, 
 He went as David ran with pebbles twain 
 From out the brook to slay the Philistine. 
 Two simple words He planted deep as seed, 
 Deep in the fertile soil of human hearts, 
 There long to germinate until the thought 
 Grew up among the nations worn with strife 
 Grew as the mighty banyan grows, from root 
 To root, far-spreading, weary Earth to shield, 
 Sun-beat and torn by tempest that if God 
 Our Father were, then brothers all mankind! 
 This germ, so simple, so sublime, hath wrought 
 As leaven in the world ; now one by one, 
 Oppressions totter, smitten unto death. 
 Aghast before its simple majesty 
 Despots in armed alliance watch askance 
 Their dreaded foe, as conquering on it comes. 
 41 OUR FATHER," breathed upon a myriad lips 
 In aspiration for a better day, 
 
 
76 Gbrfetus IDictor 
 
 Shall mighty throes of revolution heave 
 
 And empires overturn and overturn. 
 
 " OUR FATHER "! wonder-working talisman 
 
 Before whose charm the peoples are transformed ; 
 
 Hail, corner stone of human brotherhood! 
 
 Hail, sacred charter of man s liberty, 
 
 Thou pledge and prophecy of coming good, 
 
 Forerunner of a world-democracy, 
 
 Led by the aristocracy of love, 
 
 Whose royal title-deed to rank is service! 
 
 Hail, mercy s gentle angel earthward flown, 
 
 Sweet almoner of Heavenly Charity, 
 
 Angel of Help, thy tender ministries 
 
 The poor shall succor and the suffering heal; 
 
 Blest thought of home, thy cheering fireside-glow 
 
 Doth melt the hardened heart and soothe the soul 
 
 LXXXVI 
 
 Though man forget from whence he came, 
 
 Or with neglect his birthright scorn, 
 He cannot change his rank or name, 
 
 For he a child of God was born; 
 Of royal lineage he, and princely birth: 
 His Father is the Lord of Heaven and Earth! 
 
ur ffatber 77 
 
 Though satisfied with low delight, 
 Unmindful of the heavenly day 
 That streams in vain upon his sight 
 
 To glorify his earthly way, 
 Of royal lineage he, and princely birth: 
 His Father is the Lord of Heaven and Earth! 
 
 Though he, with base ingratitude 
 
 Love s care and mercy should despise, 
 That Love which raiment gives, and food, 
 And with earth s beauty feasts his eyes, 
 Of royal lineage he, and princely birth: 
 His Father is the Lord of Heaven and Earth! 
 
 Though on the Lord he turn his back 
 
 And spurn the love that for him waits, 
 Though he Love s messenger attack 
 
 And drive with insult from his gates, 
 Of royal lineage he, and princely birth: 
 His Father is the Lord of Heaven and Earth ! 
 
 Though poor and needy be his lot, 
 And troubles thicken day by day, 
 
 Though by his fellow-men forgot, 
 
 While care and hardship crowd his way, 
 
78 Cbrfstus Victor 
 
 Of royal lineage he, and princely birth: 
 
 His Father is the Lord of Heaven and Earth! 
 
 Though peace and joy of life be gone, 
 
 Though brought by sin to mortal pain, 
 The far-off goal shall yet be won, 
 
 The truth unchanged will yet remain ; 
 Of royal lineage he, and princely birth: 
 His Father is the Lord of Heaven and Earth! 
 
 He comes no suppliant begging bread, 
 Nor craves he grace of nobler hands, 
 Erect he holds his kingly head, 
 
 Heir of all ages and all lands; 
 Of royal lineage he, and princely birth: 
 His Father is the Lord of Heaven and Earth! 
 
 Naught, naught the mighty bond can break 
 
 That binds the Father to His child, 
 Nor Death nor Hell His purpose shake, 
 
 Though vast their storm and wreckage wild ; 
 Man is of royal lineage and birth: 
 His father is the Lord of Heaven and Earth! 
 
 The Lord of Life, who brought him forth, 
 Undaunted by the sin of man, 
 
ur 3fatber 79 
 
 Ingratitude and folly s froth, 
 
 In triumph will fulfil His plan; 
 We are of royal lineage and birth, 
 Sons of the Sovereign Lord of Heaven and Earth! 
 
 LXXXVII 
 
 How art thou satisfied with husks and swine, 
 
 Thou scion of a royal house divine ? 
 
 Why dost thou linger in the wilderness, 
 
 Self-exiled from thy home, in sore distress ? 
 
 Dost thou not long for thine ancestral halls, 
 
 Where love illuminates the glowing walls, 
 
 Where treasure past thy wildest dream is stored 
 
 And lavish plenty piles the groaning board ? 
 
 Dost thou not long to leave thy low estate 
 
 For nobler joys that on thy coming wait; 
 
 To smell the subtile perfume of the air 
 
 Blown from the gardens round that homestead fair; 
 
 To hear seolian whispers breathing low , 
 
 Calling to mind loved sounds of long ago; 
 
 To see that home unchanged from age to age, 
 
 Guarding secure thine ancient heritage; 
 
 To feel the bounding pulse of manhood leap 
 
 Through all thy veins, so long in sin asleep, 
 
So Gbrfstus IDfctor 
 
 And have the robe of honor round thee thrown, 
 Clothed with thy Father s glory as thine own ? 
 Dost thou not long to feel the old embrace 
 And see love s pity in thy Father s face, 
 The while these long-expectant gates resound 
 With ringing welcome for the lost one found ? 
 Shake off thy lethargy, immortal soul, 
 Thy Father waits to bless and make thee whole! 
 
 LXXXVIII 
 
 Once did my father s strong and tender hand 
 Nurse me through sickness back from death s dark 
 
 strand, 
 
 Back from the chilly waters called my soul, 
 And by his care and watching made me whole. 
 Some day a Father s voice will call me home, 
 Home from this land of shadows bid me come, 
 Back from earth s fitful dream and death s alarm, 
 Led and protected by His mighty arm 
 Wake me to life, glad strength no more to lack, 
 With all my ailments cast behind my back! 
 
 LXXXIX 
 
 But we have read of that dread sin that no 
 Forgiveness hath in this world or the world 
 
Mratb of Xove 81 
 
 To come. Has not this horror drawn a cloud 
 Across the sun for many a saddened soul, 
 Anxious lest he at last should meet this doom ? 
 How oft has reason staggered neath the load! 
 What gentle hearts in hopeless death have sunk, 
 Hunted by this grim spectre to the grave! 
 How many mock who fain would love the Lord 
 Could He forgive unto the uttermost, 
 Were His love greater than our greatest sin. 
 How many generous minds would never bow 
 Before a God who could refuse to grant 
 Forgiveness to an humble suppliant! 
 
 XC 
 
 Have thou no part nor lot in such a thought 
 My soul! believe it not, consent thou not 
 Thus to malign the Saviour s spotless name. 
 Upon Almighty God cast no such slur 
 Born of old error, of mistaken zeal, 
 Or of some impious conspiracy, 
 To forge, with this dread thought, the fetters strong 
 That for long ages bound the minds of men 
 Imprisoned by a priestly tyranny! 
 
82 Cbri0tu0 ItMctor 
 
 XCI 
 
 What phrase is this that holds us thus enthralled, 
 
 In this world or the next ? This world, forsootli ! 
 
 And wherefore read we not in place of world, 
 
 A lifetime, generation, or a space; 
 
 A dispensation, era, period, 
 
 An age ? Why should all these rejected be, 
 
 That would comport with God s high character 
 
 And leave us hope for ages yet to come, 
 
 When that past time and this in which we live 
 
 Have gone, and in the long eternity 
 
 yEons of seons, cycles all unknown, 
 
 Duration vast, unwasting, yet to come 
 
 Forgiveness might be found for every sin ? 
 
 Has Christ not told us that the letter kills 
 
 And that the spirit only giveth life ? 
 
 What earnest aspirations after God, 
 
 What high and holy thoughts, what pure desires 
 
 Has letter- worship strangled at the birth, 
 
 Relentless, pitiless, implacable! 
 
 XCII 
 
 How have we stumbled at these fearful words 
 From Him who bade us love our enemies, 
 
Cbe "Wavatb of Xove 83 
 
 That like our Heavenly Father we might be; 
 Who on the unjust and the just alike 
 The blessing of His rain bestows; who makes 
 His great, life-giving sun to rise and shine 
 Reviving both the evil and the good ; 
 Bade us forgive our brother though he sin 
 Against us many times oft multiplied, 
 And on the cross forgave His murderers! 
 
 XCIII 
 
 Nay, Thou didst utter hot, indignant words, 
 The terrors of Thy wrath, O Lamb of God, 
 Gainst them who would the Holy Spirit quench 
 Wherever it might move the hearts of men 
 With comfort for their sorrow; or might give 
 Fresh courage to Thy followers who faint 
 In their long, valiant warfare upon sin ; 
 Or, through the gathering darkness might break 
 
 forth 
 
 In flashes of new light from that clear day 
 That streams forever round the Throne of God 
 Whether in time long past, when Thou didst walk 
 On earth, or when with noiseless footsteps or 
 With clash of battle s wild commotion, Thou 
 Forever sowing seed for times to come, 
 
84 Gbrfstu0 Dfctor 
 
 Forever leading men to light and life 
 
 Hast led the nations after Thee, along 
 
 The solemn, storm-swept, sun-flecked colonnade 
 
 Of centuries that leads to our late age. 
 
 XCIV 
 
 How fierce the righteous wrath of love! Behold 
 The father sternly force his wilful son 
 From suicidal crime; the mother stand 
 Between her child and shame with flashing eyes 
 And eloquence of wrath; nay, the wild beast 
 Love s fury knows, when she defends her young! 
 
 xcv 
 
 No sterner, fiercer words, O Christ, e er fell 
 On mortal ear than when Thou didst arraign 
 The foes of truth, who would the Spirit quench 
 And hinder those who sought its voice to hear. 
 Then Thou, like fiery rain, upon their heads 
 The maledictions of Thy wrath didst pour; 
 The fierce, relentless wrath of love, not hate, 
 Wrath in defence of trusting ones shut out 
 Hurl dst Thou on keepers of the door of truth 
 Who closed it on meek faces entering; 
 
Gbe Wrath of Eove 85 
 
 Wrath of upbraiding sorrow for the fate 
 Of faithless stewards courting dire distress, 
 ^Eonial grief ere they from sin should turn 
 Needless, would they but hear Thy voice and live. 
 
 XCVI 
 
 Though men blaspheme the God who speaks to 
 
 them 
 
 By all of nature s faithful ministries, 
 By all the holy prophets of His word; 
 Though men revile the blessed Son of Man, 
 Yet may they be forgiven in this age: 
 But when a man blasphemes the God within, 
 That dove-like broods upon the dormant soul 
 O Paraclete, Companion, Comforter! 
 To waken it to loftier, nobler life, 
 How hardly, in this age or that to come 
 Shall he forgiveness find for this dread sin! 
 
 XCVII 
 
 The man who conscience stifles, who calls right 
 That which he knows is wrong; who knows the 
 
 good, 
 Yet says to Evil, " Thou shalt be my good," 
 
86 Gbrfstus Dictor 
 
 That man the intimacy of his God 
 
 Has violated, and with insult scorned 
 
 The bosom Friend who pleads with him in vain; 
 
 Who still with silent footstep follows him 
 
 To whisper in his ear at busy noon, 
 
 In unexpected places call his name, 
 
 To look upon him, from the star-lit sky 
 
 With deep, clear-shining eyes that pierce his soul; 
 
 His sleep to startle with strange, troubled dreams 
 
 That will not fade, but echo through the day; 
 
 Besetting day by day, before, behind, 
 
 To visit him with pain, remorse and woe 
 
 In this life, in the life to come, unquenched 
 
 While sin remains to feed the flame; till he 
 
 Somewhere shall meet Him face to face, and there 
 
 Drawn by the love that would not let him go, 
 
 Conquered by faithful love, love stern but true, 
 
 Unto his Father turns a penitent. 
 
 XCVIII 
 
 O Christ, defend us all in this our day, 
 From such dark sin ; let us not dare to call 
 Thee servant of Beelzebub; to quench 
 The Spirit, though it choose some lowly voice, 
 Some unknown follower of the Living God 
 
Gbe lldratl) of ILove 87 
 
 To prophesy new truth, so old, yet new 
 
 And from Thy royal treasury bring forth 
 
 Thy precious jewels to enrich mankind; 
 
 To show Thy grace more high, more deep, more 
 
 vast 
 Than man-made creeds and systems would allow. 
 
 XCIX 
 
 Thou art Incarnate Love, and when that Love 
 
 Has purged with fierce, long-lasting penal fires 
 
 The dross from the pure gold in these gross hearts, 
 
 God will, through untold ages yet to come, 
 
 Show the exceeding riches of His grace 
 
 In kindness toward us through Thy saving name. 
 
 It is our sin God would destroy, not us; 
 
 All we His children are, and unto Him 
 
 Do mercies and forgivenesses belong; 
 
 For Love, our God, is a consuming fire, 
 
 Consuming human guilt, not living souls! 
 
 To every cold or troubled heart 
 The treasures of Thy love impart; 
 
Cbrfstus Wctoc 
 
 Thy pity for each human woe, 
 Lead us our brother-love to show; 
 Beneath Thy rule, O Prince of Peace, 
 May strife and sin and sorrow cease. 
 
 Hasten the coming of the time 
 When love shall lead in every clime ; 
 That long-expected, longed-for day 
 When all shall own Thy gentle sway, 
 Thy kingdom spread from sea to sea, 
 Thy praises fill eternity! 
 
 CI 
 
 Didst Thou not also say: " I am the Door"? 
 Again Thou saidst: " If any man shall knock, 
 It shall be opened unto him." And didst 
 Thou mean that for this little span of life 
 Thou wouldst receive the weary to Thy home, 
 And those who seek for rest and peace with Thee, 
 But that when death is past, and those blind eyes 
 That could not see on earth Thy loveliness, 
 Or, dazzled by some fleeting joy, refused 
 Thy hospitality, ah, didst Thou mean 
 
5)oor 
 
 That when they turned again to seek Thy love 
 
 (Perhaps in some far distant time and world), 
 
 Repenting of their sin and wasted years, 
 
 And humbly knocked for entrance to Thy home, 
 
 Then Thou wouldst shut the door upon their cry 
 
 And let them wander in their misery, 
 
 Cursing Thy name throughout unending time ? 
 
 Lord, Thou didst set no bounds! Thou didst not 
 
 say, 
 " Till death," else wouldst Thou be the vanquished 
 
 one 
 
 And Death would triumph over Thee. Nay, Lord, 
 Forgive the thought; Thou art Thyself the Door 
 No fortress gate whose slow, reluctant hinge 
 Begrudges entrance to lost refugees; 
 This door admits us to our Father s house, 
 To each faint knock wide open is it thrown, 
 And, from within, forth streams the light of home. 
 For whosoever unto Thee doth come 
 Thou wilt, O Christ, in no wise cast him out, 
 Nor time nor place can quench Thy boundless 
 
 love, 
 
 But with those arms that were extended wide 
 Upon the bitter cross for all mankind 
 Thou wilt embrace and draw him to Thy heart. 
 
QO Cbrietus Victor 
 
 CII 
 
 But canst Thou draw men thus ? How slow our 
 
 hearts 
 
 To trust Thy patient love, Thy boundless grace, 
 That with unwearied patience waits for all! 
 When Thou didst see the dreaded cross loom up 
 And throw its shadow on Thy lonely path, 
 Thou, the far distant future then beholding, 
 Madest a promise great and wonderful, 
 Pregnant with blessing vast for humankind, 
 That if Thou shouldst be lifted up above 
 The earth in mortal agony, Thou wouldst 
 Draw all men unto Thee. Thy word we trust. 
 How great that word, how comforting the thought! 
 Give us strong faith till Thou Thy word fulfil ! 
 
 CHI 
 
 I did not ask for life. By God s decree 
 Helpless I came athwart the light of day. 
 My lot already cast, my wish ignored, 
 I had no voice to say if I would be. 
 Would He who forced my being on me leave 
 My unknown future, my eternal fate 
 
Btcrnal passion of 0o> gi 
 
 In these weak hands ? Would He bid me decide 
 
 My course, and at some parting of the ways 
 
 Make final choice, with feeble sight and will, 
 
 Which way I go ? Has He who hides from me 
 
 The morrow till it come, left me to plan 
 
 My journey through unending time, while yet 
 
 I, purblind, grope for light in this crude state ? 
 
 Enough for me to follow day by day 
 
 With trustful heart in the plain path of duty, 
 
 Sure that the end is safe in God s strong hand, 
 
 Man may obey his Maker, or defy 
 
 Awhile the One that bore and nourished him, 
 
 But not a hairbreadth will Almighty Love 
 
 Concede to aught that would its end confuse. 
 
 Sin unto each full recompense will bring 
 
 Of misery and pain, Tartarean fires 
 
 Deep burning in the soul, to drive him back 
 
 Into the homeward path. How oft, how far 
 
 We stray, how long sin s torments we endure, 
 
 That lies with us. The end man cannot change, 
 
 For, saith the Lord : I am the First and Last 
 
 I the beginning am, and I the end, 
 
 The Alpha and the Omega. 
 
92 Cbci0tu0 Dictor 
 
 CIV 
 
 Alas, 
 
 Sin may deceive and we afar may stray, 
 Our evil hearts our Maker may defy, 
 And Retribution, with her face of steel 
 And form of terror girt with consternation, 
 Our steps may follow with majestic mien, 
 Point out our rugged way with fiery sword, 
 Relentless, scourge us on to keen remorse, 
 And terrible may be our agony 
 Until with bleeding feet we reach the goal. 
 Then with a clearer vision shall we see 
 Stern Retribution, her long warfare over, 
 Loosen her corselet, doff her visor grim, 
 Lay from her dreadful form the clanking mail 
 And show her face, the radiant face of Love! 
 For love at last must triumph over all, 
 Nor sin nor death from God s firm hand may 
 
 snatch 
 His offspring, for whose sake He made the worlds. 
 
 CV 
 
 Would God our Father wake us from our sleep 
 The deep and dreamless sleep of nothingness 
 
JEtcrnal passion of 0oD 93 
 
 To offer us a slender, mocking chance ? 
 Would He have called His children into life, 
 Vast throng of souls, unnumbered and unknown, 
 Through untold ages, in far sundered lands 
 Where they in darkness sat, nor knew His name, 
 Think you that He would call them forth for this ? 
 Is His free gift our glorious heritage 
 The sport of chance and coupled with a snare ? 
 Is Chance co-partner with the Lord of Hosts ? 
 Shall circumstance of birth, or time, or place, 
 Defeat His will and spoil our destiny ? 
 
 CVI 
 
 Would God our Father scatter living souls 
 
 Like seeds that flutter in the aimless blast 
 
 That recks not where they fall, in fertile soil 
 
 To live, or on the arid sands to die ? 
 
 Lost seeds may feed the hungry fowl, but God 
 
 Will glut no ravenous Moloch with the seed 
 
 Of His immortal being, nor cast forth 
 
 His offspring, careless where they drift or fall. 
 
 Should our Almighty Parent treat us so, 
 
 How Evil, insolent with growing power, 
 
 Would lift his taunting voice and God deride! 
 
94 Gbrtetus IDictor 
 
 How blighting Chaos his lost sway would claim! 
 How Order back to wild confusion fly! 
 O Love, thou blushest at the unworthy thought ; 
 O Darkness, what a triumph over Day ! 
 
 Justice, what a libel on thy name ! 
 
 Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right ? 
 
 CVII 
 
 Whither upon this strange and changeful sea 
 Now calm, now joyful, sparkling in the sun 
 As if a million diamonds rained from heaven, 
 Now dark with gathering clouds, now swept by 
 
 storm 
 Drifts my frail bark, beset with doubts and fears ? 
 
 1 cannot clearly see, the night comes on, 
 
 The hoarse gale winds its bellowing trumpets wild, 
 And like a shroud the drend mist wraps me in. 
 I fear the night, I hear the breakers grind 
 Upon the cruel, threatening rocks. But still 
 To guide me on my way, to quell my fear, 
 From the far shores, with oft-repeated tones, 
 I hear a steady signal blowing loud 
 Through the thick night, above the tempest s roar, 
 With clarion voice proclaiming: " God is Love." 
 
Bternal passion of <3oD 95 
 
 In vain the angry winds that voice defy, 
 In vain their tumult would His signal drown, 
 In vain the murky fog would smother it; 
 Through all the storm, through all the doubt and 
 
 gloom, 
 I hear the broken echoes answer : Love ! 
 
 CVIII 
 
 If any single soul shall drift in woe, 
 By fear, tempestuous and eternal, driven, 
 Lost on a shoreless sea in endless storm, 
 Or hopeless sink, engulfed in the abyss 
 No floating spar, no hand outstretched to save 
 From the unpitying water s awful swirl 
 Plunged headlong down to everlasting night, 
 In darkness quenched, a living soul destroyed, 
 Will not God s thought for it have been in vain, 
 His ancient promises be unfulfilled, 
 The triumph of the Cross be incomplete, 
 And victory be mingled with defeat ? 
 
 CIX 
 
 Ah, never sank a sinning soul so low, 
 But GoJs paternal hand could deeper go 
 His perishing child to save. 
 
g6 Cbrtetus Dictor 
 
 Though shipwrecked by sin s overwhelming weight, 
 God s hand has rescued from as hard a fate 
 Some other castaway. 
 
 How shall I set a limit to His grace, 
 How dare I cloud the glory of His face ? 
 
 Abide His time j have faith through weary days 
 That at the last each soul shall sing His praise 
 Who moulds the hearts of men. 
 
 CX 
 
 Oft have I heard, upon the night-wind borne, 
 A mellow-throated robin piping low 
 
 As if, lone herald of the distant morn, 
 His little heart with rapture were aglow. 
 
 Some secret influence of the coming day 
 
 Had waked him from his leaf-embowered sleep, 
 
 Till in the rushing torrent of his lay 
 
 Outpoured the joy no night could silent keep. 
 
 happy warbler, whose glad matins raise 
 
 Such tuneful worship to thine Unknown Friend, 
 
 1 too would laud His name and sing His praise 
 And magnify His mercy without end. 
 
Sternal passion of <5oo 97 
 
 For I have seen the breaking of a light 
 
 More fair than ever rose to greet thine eyes, 
 
 Whose coming shall forever banish night 
 And fill with joy the waiting earth and skies. 
 
 I see afar the glowing wheels of light, 
 
 I hear the fleeing spirits of the night; 
 
 Would that my voice might flow as clear and 
 
 strong, 
 As hope-inspiring as the robin-song! 
 
 CXI 
 
 If man can tame the fierce and ruthless beast 
 Filled with wild passion and the lust for blood; 
 If in that shaggy breast man can implant 
 A germ of love for one who gives him food, 
 Cannot the Lord in man s rebellious heart 
 Kindle a spark, in some forgotten cell 
 Of His own temple, ruined and unused, 
 That smouldering long, perchance unfelt, unseen, 
 With stench of smoke, or faint uncertain glow 
 Shall burst at last to flame in the dark night, 
 Fanned into life by some strong wind of Heaven, 
 And blazing, signal from its far-off hill 
 An answer to His beacon-light of love ? 
 
98 Cbrtstus IDictoc 
 
 CXII 
 
 If man can find a way to reach the dark 
 Imprisoned mind, when every sense is dead 
 (Deaf ears and sightless eyes, nor any speech) 
 And light and comfort to the prisoner bring, 
 Cannot the Lord the dormant soul arouse, 
 Though buried in a dungeon black as night; 
 Cannot a ray of His pure light steal in 
 To wake the sleeper and dispel the gloom ? 
 
 CXIII 
 
 If when the tree is withered, parched, and dead, 
 Refreshing rains can wake in the deep root 
 New life that shoots from darkness to the day, 
 With verdure glad and bright with blossoms fair, 
 Cannot the Lord, with all His gracious showers 
 Of living waters, reach dead, sterile souls 
 Long heedless of His love, and make them feel 
 The breathing of His Spirit like the Spring, 
 And bud and bloom, with precious fruit, to grace 
 Celestial gardens of the King of Kings ? 
 
 CXIV 
 
 O Thou whose name is Love, dost Thou not long 
 To draw each child of Thine unto Thyself ? 
 
Bternal jpasefon of <5o& 99 
 
 All souls are Thine, Thou holdest each essential; 
 Art Thou then God and canst not claim Thine own ! 
 Thou madest day and night, sunshine and storm ; 
 Thou madest Good and hast created Evil; 
 Thou comprehendest and controllest all. 
 Cannot Thy perfect wisdom find a way 
 Hard hearts to reach and stubborn wills to lead ? 
 Cannot Omnipotence the way make plain, 
 Justice and Might and Wisdom serving Love ? 
 For these, though lordly, be but servitors 
 That Love Divine upon His sapphire throne, 
 Each in his own concentric region vast, 
 With triple zones of glory girdle round. 
 
 cxv 
 
 O Thou that from eternity 
 
 Upon Thy wounded heart hast borne 
 
 Each pang and cry of misery 
 
 Wherewith our human hearts are torn, 
 
 Thy love upon the grievous cross 
 Doth glow, the beacon-light of time, 
 
 Forever sharing pain and loss 
 With every man in every clime. 
 
ioo Gbristus Dictoc 
 
 How vast, how vast Thy sacrifice, 
 
 As ages come and ages go, 
 Still waiting, till it shall suffice 
 
 To draw the last cold heart and slow. 
 
 CXVI 
 
 Why should we doubt Thy power ? Shall the un 
 seen 
 
 And silent current that pervades the earth 
 Draw the frail needle trembling in the storm 
 Where shipwreck threatens on tumultuous seas, 
 Or exiles wander, lost in forest gloom, 
 Shall this mysterious influence surely draw 
 The needle to the pole until it point 
 Steadfast and true, and shall we doubt Thy power 
 To attract the heart of man unto Thyself ? 
 
 CXVII 
 
 Shall the majestic sun that rules the heavens 
 Hold in his grasp the planets as they roll 
 In solemn order through the realms of light; 
 Send forth his mighty forces and turn back 
 The flaming comet in his headlong flight, 
 Back from the awful depths of space unknown 
 
Btetnal ipaeeion of <3o& 101 
 
 The blazing fugitive recall and make 
 This wonder of the skies obedient come ? 
 Shall suns and systems scattered far and wide 
 Throughout lone regions measureless to thought, 
 Worlds new-born, nebulous, in vapor swathed, 
 Fierce molten globes with fiery cyclones torn, 
 Rock-ribbed and sea-girt planets whirling by, 
 Dead worlds, dark phantoms of the firmament, 
 In ceaseless march and wheel and countermarch 
 Through the thick-woven orbit-maze of space 
 Stupendous rhythm that marks the eternal year 
 With seed and blossom, fruitage and decay 
 While each its pathway keeps, its course fulfils, 
 Nor clashing worlds in dread collision shake 
 The universe with terror and dismay; 
 Shall these harmonious orbs roll on in peace, 
 Obedient to the all-persuasive power 
 Of far Alcyone, great central sun, 
 Leading these hosts forever on and on 
 We know not whither and we know not how; 
 And shall not He who rules the universe 
 Throned in calm unmarred by discord dire 
 Who out of chaos and primeval night, 
 When all the morning stars together sang, 
 Summoned these shining spheres to illume the void, 
 
102 Gbri0tu5 Dictoc 
 
 With torches lighting His triumphal way, 
 And all the sons of God for joy did shout 
 Paeans of praise shall not this Mighty One 
 Order the ways of His own family, 
 And from sin s chaos lead the sons of men ? 
 Or shall we doubt that Thou, Incarnate Love, 
 Son of the Highest, Sent of God, canst draw 
 Unto Thyself all souls, though lost in sin, 
 In far-off regions lost to all but Thee ? 
 
 CXVIII 
 
 But must we ever follow, never lead ? 
 Are we not free ? May we not choose our way ? 
 Shall this o ermastering force compel consent ? 
 Is loss of liberty the price of bliss! 
 
 CXIX 
 
 Spirit of freedom, thou dost love the sea, 
 Trackless and storm-tost ocean wild and free, 
 Faint symbol of thine own eternity. 
 
 The seagulls wheel and soar and fearless roam, 
 The stormy petrel dashes through the foam j 
 The mighty billows heave, the tempests roar, 
 The proud waves break along the sounding shore 
 And chant the song of freedom evermore I 
 
Spirit of freedom 103 
 
 CXX 
 
 Thou dost delight in every mountain-side 
 Far from the strife and eager toil of men, 
 Where like Thy spirit blows the unfettered wind, 
 Where in sweet freedom roam the deer untamed, 
 Where high above the darkling forest s gloom 
 The eagle soars, rejoicing on his way. 
 Author and God of freedom, Thou dost love 
 The mountains range on range, with glory crowned, 
 Kissed by the setting sun as fades the day, 
 Whose peaks climb heavenward toward Thy dwell 
 ing-place. 
 
 There Freedom s voice resounds from crag to crag, 
 There plunging torrents her glad anthem raise, 
 There avalanches shout her deathless name. 
 Thou lov st the cataract s majestic curve 
 Whose waters rush impetuous thundering down 
 To misty depths with hovering Iris crowned, 
 Where from the abyss vast alleluias roll 
 And mighty voices stir the listening soul! 
 
 CXXI 
 
 Whence hast thou thy courage, brown thrush, 
 brown thrush ? 
 
I0 4 dbdstus Dictor 
 
 Whence hast those wild bugle-tones; heard st 
 
 thou the rush 
 
 Of troopers to battle for rights of the free ? 
 Who taught thee that song of liberty ? 
 
 Was t the breath of the forest, melodious bird, 
 Where mysterious murmurs and whispers are heard; 
 Where the track of the storm-king is loud with his 
 
 blast, 
 And the wood-giants bow till his trumpets have 
 
 passed ? 
 
 Whence hast thou thy joyance, brown thrush, 
 
 brown thrush, 
 
 Thy flute-note s delight at the twilight hush, 
 Piping thy mate a sweet serenade 
 As she broods her nest in the leafy shade ? 
 
 I would thou couldst teach me, brown thrush, 
 
 brown thrush 
 
 To cast off the care that my spirit would crush : 
 Thou seemest unconscious that aught is amiss 
 In this troubled world, so perfect thy bliss! 
 
 Would some hand might bestow on me vision to 
 
 see 
 
Spirit of jfrceDom 105 
 
 How this wonderful earth and sky look, thrush, to 
 
 thee, 
 And what gifts that I know not, wee minstrel, are 
 
 thine; 
 Sing again, O bird-brother, thy carol divine! 
 
 With thy cry of defiance, brown thrush, brown 
 
 thrush, 
 
 Thy paean, thy warbling, how limpid and lush, 
 My heart with thine ecstacy thou dost inspire; 
 Whence hast thou, whence hast thou such 
 
 passionate fire ? 
 
 CXXII 
 
 Author and God of freedom, Thou dost plant 
 
 In every breast a longing to be free. 
 
 Thou to the patriot s arm dost courage give 
 
 To battle with oppression and to strike 
 
 The tryant down; to break the captive s chain, 
 
 Thou dost inspire the love of liberty 
 
 Which brooks no priestly bondage of the soul 
 
 That dares forbid the mind of man to explore 
 
 Thy vast domain unfettered ; tyranny 
 
 That in a cage would prison winged thought, 
 
106 Gbristus IDlctoc 
 
 Or clip her wings lest she should fly too far. 
 Thou lov st the eager thought and life of men 
 Instinct with strength of their high parentage. 
 Nor wouldst thou have us bow in abject fear 
 AinA faint, reluctant homage to Thee pay, 
 Wrung from us by o erpowering majesty. 
 Wouldst Thou not have us sons of God, free-born, 
 Free like Thyself, as we Thine image bear ? 
 Dost Thou not call us to high enterprise, 
 To master earth and sea and scale the heavens, 
 To broader conquest, nobler victories, 
 To greater triumphs of self-government, 
 To share Thy wondrous thoughts and walk with 
 Thee? 
 
 cxxin 
 
 By love of freedom led, 
 Our Pilgrim Fathers fled 
 
 Over the sea. 
 
 Here long they toiled and prayed, 
 Here deep foundations laid, 
 Here they a stronghold made 
 
 For Liberty. 
 
Spirit of ^Freedom 107 
 
 For Liberty they fought, 
 
 And with their life-blood bought 
 
 Our native land; 
 Where now in peace we dwell, 
 Low grassy mounds still tell 
 Where many a hero fell 
 
 With sword in hand. 
 
 Led by that noble band, 
 Millions from every land 
 
 Have hither come. 
 For some exalted end 
 Doth God His children send, 
 And here all nations blend 
 
 In our fair home. 
 
 Strong Saxon, Freedom s heir, 
 Foremost to do and dare, 
 
 Leader of men ; 
 Brave Teuton, Norseman bold 
 From fastnesses of cold 
 Whence stormed the Viking old, 
 
 Grim dragon den; 
 
io3 Cbrietus Dictoc 
 
 Warm-hearted Celt and Hun 
 Of swarthy hue, blithe son 
 
 Of Italy; 
 
 Lone Hebrew, exile-worn, 
 Cast out with stripes and scorn, 
 All seek this blessed bourne 
 
 Of Liberty! 
 
 From Orient s dark domain, 
 Armenia s tears and pain, 
 
 With one accord 
 Rejoicing pilgrims go 
 And, streaming westward, flow 
 Where hope s high beacons glow, 
 
 Led of the Lord. 
 
 From Ethiopia s gloom 
 To slavery s hopeless doom 
 
 The Negro came; 
 But lo, a mighty voice, 
 Mid blood and battle noise, 
 Bade even the slave rejoice 
 
 In Freedom s name. 
 
Spirit ot ffreeDom 109 
 
 The Red Man, in despair, 
 Fled to his mountain lair 
 
 And forest wild ; 
 Anon sweet Liberty 
 Invites him to her knee 
 And bids him, too, be free, 
 
 Her native child! 
 
 How oft, by tyrants driven, 
 Have these in battle striven 
 
 For kingly pride! 
 Now cools their hostile blood, 
 Now for the common good, 
 In freedom s brotherhood, 
 
 Stand they allied. 
 
 Nourished by Freedom, here 
 Shall a new race appear, 
 
 From many, one; 
 Beneath her ample shield, 
 Upon this wide-spread field, 
 Shall ancient strifes be healed, 
 
 New life begun. 
 
no Gbrtetus IDictor 
 
 Here will the Lord make plain 
 Things men have sought in vain 
 
 Since time s first morn; 
 Called forth by Freedom s might, 
 Here first shall see the light 
 Vast powers for man and right, 
 
 As yet unborn. 
 
 Ho, freemen, watch ye well, 
 Let no base traitor sell 
 
 Freedom for gold; 
 Gift of the Lord of Love, 
 Sent from the heavens above, 
 Strong eagle, gentle dove, 
 
 At one behold! 
 
 CXXIV 
 
 Be not too sure 
 
 Your freedom will endure, 
 
 Unless ye watch and guard your treasure well. 
 
 If ye but close your eyes, 
 
 Lulled by luxurious Siren singing 
 
 Into a fatal slumber and forgetting; 
 
Spirit of jfreeDom m 
 
 In eager haste for wealth and place 
 
 Heedless of woes to come and foul disgrace, 
 
 Blind to your country s home-bred foes that hide, 
 
 Lurking in ambush at your very side 
 
 While ye are sleeping or are busy getting, 
 
 Some giant may arise, 
 
 Some emissary of the powers of Hell, 
 
 A petty partisan at first, 
 
 Seized with ambition s quenchless thirst, 
 
 And in an evil hour 
 
 Grasp at imperial power ! 
 
 CXXV 
 
 Or dazzled by the wild extravagance 
 Of nature s rich exuberance, 
 Storehouse of the Creator s vast reserve 
 Laid up our generations long to serve; 
 Its wealth of grain beyond all measure, 
 Its mines untold that gleam with treasure, 
 Food for the nations in distress, 
 Strength to defend the cause of right, 
 All that the heart of man could bless 
 Made glorious by freedom s light 
 On mountain-side and plain and lordly river 
 Beware, lest ye forget the bounteous Giver 
 
"2 Cbristus Victor 
 
 And worship Mammon, bending low the knee; 
 
 Your high ideals on his altar laid 
 
 Nor blush for shame, nor in his service falter; 
 
 Things of the spirit cast into the shade, 
 
 Objects of sense a weightier matter made, 
 
 Forgetting Truth s eternal majesty; 
 
 So shall ye fall from your once high estate, 
 
 The humbled victims of avenging fate, 
 
 Freedom disconsolate, the nations disappointed, 
 
 Democracy a myth, Hope mourning her anointed, 
 
 Tyrants rejoicing with unfeigned delight, 
 
 God s face averted from the hateful sight, 
 
 And over all the legend : Ichabod ! 
 
 Ye cannot worship Mammon and serve God. 
 
 CXXVI 
 
 For despots on their thrones, 
 Builded of dead men s bones 
 Cement with orphans tears, 
 Gilded by force and stealth 
 With the people s hard-earned wealth, 
 Haunted by dungeon groans, 
 Curses and ghastly fears, 
 May form a mighty league 
 
Spirit ot ffreeDom 113 
 
 By storm or dark intrigue 
 
 To strike a stunning blow 
 
 And Freedom overthrow; 
 
 Until before their gloating eyes, 
 
 Bound hand and foot, their hated rival lies! 
 
 CXXVII 
 
 Or swarming Asian hordes, 
 
 Led by their fierce war-lords 
 
 Long schooled by the example of their Western 
 
 brothers, 
 
 When strong enough, to seize the lands of others; 
 Lashed into fury by the depredations 
 Of cormorant fleets and predatory nations 
 Flocking from far around the Dragon; bent 
 On plunder snatched in his dismemberment; 
 Well taught, alas, in ruthless arts of death 
 By followers of the Man of Nazareth- 
 Awakened from their long millennial slumbers, 
 May like a huge, on-rushing tidal wave, 
 Crush and destroy us neath o erwhelming num 
 bers! 
 
ii4 Gbrfstus Wctor 
 
 CXXVIII 
 
 In the titanic struggle yet to be 
 When right and light and human liberty 
 With powers of greed and tyranny engage 
 In mortal combat, final war to wage 
 A world-wide struggle coming on apace 
 In many a waking land and longing race, 
 My country, do thou make a valiant fight 
 And for the people s cause put forth thy might, 
 And may the Lord of Hosts who made thee free 
 Make thee, great guardian of liberty, 
 To lead the nations, marching in the van, 
 The fearless champion of the rights of man ; 
 Arm thee with light, and with immortal fire 
 Thine altars keep aflame, thy heart inspire, 
 Lest commonweal be counted little worth 
 And Freedom, throttled, perish from the earth ! 
 
 CXXIX 
 
 O sacred Freedom, man has loved thee long 
 And long for thee his precious blood has shed ; 
 In this thy new-found home forever dwell; 
 Thyself an angel show, full-panoplied 
 
Spirit ot tfree&om us 
 
 Oppression to destroy, old wrongs to right, 
 The weak to guard and hopes untold fulfill ; 
 Hopes of brave martyrs and of patriots gone 
 Who died rejoicing that thou couldst not die; 
 Hopes for the time to come, that brighter day 
 When thou shalt blessing bear to every land 
 Till men no more their fellows shall oppress, 
 Till everywhere the people rule supreme. 
 
 From struggling Cuba trampled in her blood; 
 From Greece where lo, Leonidas awakes, 
 Startled from sleep by the intolerable cry 
 Of Crete beleaguered by the Iscariot nations 
 Europa, shameless, harloting with Islam 
 Wakes once again to face o erwhelming odds 
 And stir the sluggish pulses of the world; 
 From lone Armenia s massacre infernal, 
 From Finland crushed, Siberia exile-cursed, 
 From far off ocean-girdled Philippines, 
 Ground twixt the upper and the nether stone, 
 From sturdy Transvaal, battling for her life, 
 Blood of old Huguenot and Netherlander, 
 O Freedom, hear thy martyrs cry to thee! 
 
n6 Cbrtstus \Dictor 
 
 The flying rumor of thy coming power 
 Affrights the tyrant hearing thy great name, 
 And glimmering hope lights many a wistful ey< 
 Forsake not thou the weak, nor pass them by ! 
 
 cxxx 
 
 What means this murmuring sound that fills the air, 
 Voices of anger, discontent, despair, 
 Misguided, crude, despised, misunderstood, 
 If not the waking sense of brotherhood ? 
 
 What mean this woman s tears, these children s 
 
 cries ? 
 
 What prostrate form before them bleeding lies ? 
 T is freedom s martyr, who his blood has shed 
 For liberty to earn his children bread! 
 
 And is there then no better way than this ? 
 Must brotherhood be risked in war s abyss ? 
 
Cbe <3oai of 3Libert 117 
 
 Ah comrades, let blind strife give way to peace; 
 Assail not Freedom, let this madness cease! 
 
 Force will not break the spirit of the free, 
 Ye cannot kill immortal Liberty; 
 The fires that sweep across the burning plain 
 Fresh verdure bring, as grows the grass again. 
 
 O Brother Christ, Yoke-Fellow of mankind, 
 Help us in Thy great love our way to find, 
 Help us in every creature dear to Thee, 
 Howe er despised, a brother-man to see. 
 
 If we but held Thy Golden Rule supreme 
 For men and nations, soon wouldst Thou redeem 
 From maddening strife and toil our harried race, 
 Stilled by Thy soothing, reconciling face. 
 
 Upon the world s great longing then would rise 
 Such light as never broke in eastern skies; 
 As if mankind from long and troubled sleep 
 Woke to love s power undreamed, vast, ocean-deep. 
 
us Gbrtstus Wctot 
 
 Greed from his pitiless jaws would loose the world 
 And red Ambition s pirate flags be furled, 
 The lily and the rose make glad the waste 
 And men at last life s true elixir taste! 
 
 CXXXI 
 
 Ye winds of heaven, your wings are faint 
 With bearing cries of the oppressed; 
 
 The ages weary of the plaint, 
 
 Ah, who will hear and give them rest ? 
 
 O Mother Earth, dost thou not feel 
 The tears that rain-like on thee fall ? 
 
 Hast thou no balm these hearts to heal, 
 Canst thou not hear them vainly call ? 
 
 O Skies, in pity stoop awhile, 
 
 How smile ye so on such despair ? 
 
 Thy joy, O Sun, may not beguile 
 The quarry in the tiger s lair. 
 
 Forgotten of their fellow-men 
 They find no helper in their need; 
 
 Their life a waste, their home a den, 
 Victims of tyranny and greed, 
 
0oal of 
 
 They languish weary and forlorn 
 
 In penury and sore distress; 
 They curse the day that they were born, 
 
 Such fears appall, such woes oppress. 
 
 The wailing infant hushed and dead, 
 The mother s heart with anguish numb, 
 
 The father s vengeful cry for bread, 
 
 Appeal to Heaven, but Heaven is dumb. 
 
 ^^TBK"* JTy 
 And thinkest thou that God is deadX^ * OF THK 
 
 Who Israel out of Egypt led, f TTNIVET 
 
 Who brought our fathers o er the se?K2cAUrOfl^ 
 And gave this land to Liberty, 
 Who out of bondage called the slave 
 Thinkest thou these He cannot save ? 
 
 The Lord with measured steps and slow 
 Doth onward through the ages go. 
 Listen! His footsteps now I hear; 
 Bruised hearts, your Helper draweth near. 
 
 CXXXII 
 
 A dreamer heard a warning voice declare: 
 " From bondage and from servile toil set free, 
 Man shall be free indeed; the plastic globe 
 
120 Gbtistus IDictor 
 
 Which he inhabits shall become his slave 
 And serve him well with forces yet unknown. 
 Earth s countless cataracts and ocean s tide 
 His yoke shall bear, his labors shall perform, 
 And from their tireless pulses shall stream forth 
 The lightnings, harnessed to obey his will. 
 Then unseen forces with resistless might 
 The groaning mill shall turn on every plain; 
 Like shuttles through the land his chariots urge; 
 Wild Winter, howling, from his hearthstone drive; 
 Cities illume and from each blazing hill 
 Flash their auroras on the wondering night; 
 Pierce earth s deep entrails through with searching 
 
 ray 
 
 And show the unimagined treasure there. 
 Borne on the ethereal tide, lo, mirrored faces 
 Shall, speaking, smile or scowl their dark defiance. 
 And voices weird shall whisper through the air 
 From land to land, swift flying messengers, 
 Finding this earth too small, too circumscribed, 
 Reach out afar, beyond her narrow zones 
 And nothing daunted, hail the passing planets! 
 
 " But not for peace alone shall men be free; 
 Dread enginery of war shall they devise 
 
of Liberty 121 
 
 Before whose hideous and unpitying storm 
 
 Of terror Jove s red thunderbolts would pale 
 
 And Neptune s ineffectual trident falter. 
 
 Forth from his flaming throat the monitor 
 
 Ten leagues hurls five and twenty hundredweight 
 
 Of steel, hurtling with grewsome cries and fierce 
 
 Valkyria-song through the torn, screaming air 
 
 Amain, pregnant with Death s dire progeny. 
 
 But while this bellowing monster of the deep 
 
 Shakes Ocean, frighting all his finny tribes, 
 
 Lo, that strange narwhal traversing the main, 
 
 Disporting now athwart the foaming crest, 
 
 Now forging silent neath the rolling billow, 
 
 Relentless follows his unheeding prey, 
 
 Till rushing with ferocious snout he rends 
 
 The bowels of his mighty adversary 
 
 And, helpless in the ocean solitude, 
 
 Down, down the abyss ten thousand, gasping, 
 
 swirl 
 
 And in ten thousand homes a bitter cry!" 
 (Art Thou so kindly, Death, thou need st our aid ?) 
 " Or see that floating crater lead the van, 
 Hell-gorged volcano spewing dynamite 
 Into the mine-sown harbor, ploughing deep 
 A pathway cleared for the invading fleets 
 
122 Cbrfstus Dfctor 
 
 Tartarean furies pressing close behind 
 To rain destruction on the beleaguered town. 
 
 " O, thought of terror! In a man s right hand, 
 
 Held in the feeble fingers of a man, 
 
 See that slight pencil of electric waves 
 
 Flow noiseless through the night more swift than 
 
 lightning, 
 
 Hunting those huge leviathans of war 
 Of truer steel than rang on Vulcan s anvil 
 And with enormous armor belted round, 
 For devastation built, with thunders voiced 
 Dread messenger of death, infernal ferret 
 Through massy bulwark and through ponderous 
 
 hull 
 
 Deep burrowing to the guarded magazine, 
 Defenceless from this finger of grim fate, 
 Till armament and men are swallowed up 
 With vast reverberation of the deep ! 
 
 " And armies then afield shall silent stand 
 Immovable, transfixed, in rigid ranks 
 Arrested mid-career; uplifted feet, 
 Outstretched arms Death s fearful pantomime! 
 Or mowed in sudden swaths as with a scythe, 
 
Gbe <3oal of Xtbertg 123 
 
 Slain by electric currents on them turned 
 From silent, lightning-breathed artillery; 
 Or from earth-shaking dynamos evoked, 
 Downward shall stream by mystic forces driven, 
 Deep tremors through Earth s cavernous abyss, 
 Vast, viewless shafts with desolation barbed, 
 Rending with earthquake the antipodes! 
 
 " And men with joy shall cleave the buoyant air 
 By strange pneumatic enginery propelled 
 Self-fed on life-blood of the atmosphere s 
 Exhaustless veins, to fluid power compressing 
 Titanic energies of storm and gale; 
 Like swallows on the wing at close of day 
 In mazy flight and feeding as they fly 
 With many a curve and wheel for pure delight; 
 Or speed with flash of winged thought away 
 Mocking the winds and beckoning them to follow, 
 As the swift arrow seeks the distant goal, 
 Or honey-freighted bee the murmuring hive. 
 
 " Yea, with vast love of speed inherited 
 
 From Him at whose command: * LET THERE BE 
 
 LIGHT, 
 For His creative joy from night sprang forth 
 
124 <Jbrf0tu0 IDictoc 
 
 Arcturus, Centaur, Sirius, Pleiades 
 Quadriga fiery-maned, whom only He 
 In rein could hold, fierce plunging through the 
 
 void, 
 
 Sure guided as with flashing heel they spurn 
 The narrow confines of the firmament 
 Shall man, impelled by innate force divine, 
 Grasp at sidereal velocity; 
 Strange mark of likeness this twixt son and Sire! 
 
 " Men shall be drunk with the new wine of freedom ; 
 
 Nations contending for supremacy 
 
 With squadrons flying in mid air shall fight, 
 
 At fortresses and armored navies laugh, 
 
 Scoff at Gibraltar s frowning battlements 
 
 Rain from the clouds on cities deadly hail, 
 
 Infernal bombs, with soporific damp 
 
 And foul infection s fatal microbes crammed, 
 
 Surcharged to burst and flood the sleeping town 
 
 With fumes and vapors, as Death s awful breath 
 
 Crept on the cohorts of Sennacherib; 
 
 Aerial fleets, armadas tempest-flown 
 
 Rush earth-ward, striking terror unawares, 
 
 As drops the halcyon, poised above the sea, 
 
 To grapple with his prey beneath the wave ! 
 
<5oal of XtbertB 125 
 
 Then ancient barriers shall naught avail, 
 Defenceless from the harpies of the sky; 
 Nor any nation hold its borders safe 
 From swift invasion by the winged foe, 
 Dread vampire bandits of the trackless air 
 Who upon lonely dwellings from afar 
 Lighting, shall terrify the midnight hour. 
 None then may imposts lay nor customs levy 
 Upon the unfettered commerce of the world. 
 And men shall strive in ever deadlier strife, 
 Trample on law and scorn authority, 
 Nor brook restraint in aught of God or man, 
 Order despise and government defy 
 Till futile war itself must cry for peace 
 Or universal anarchy confront! " 
 
 CXXXIII 
 
 Hear the Creator to His children say: 
 
 " Fear ye no dreamer s evil prophecy. 
 
 Lo, I am God and even the wrath of man 
 
 Shall give me praise and the remainder I 
 
 Will when I please restrain, saith Love Almighty; 
 
 Yea, all the earth the meek shall ye.t inherit. 
 
 Evil is doomed, love only shall endure. 
 
i26 Cbrtetus HMctor 
 
 When strife exhausted is and license spent 
 
 And ye are satisfied that these are vain, 
 
 Then shall ye learn of me the law of love 
 
 And I alone will lead and make you free! 
 
 Of old I bade you conquer Earth, commanding 
 
 You to possess it, knitting land to land 
 
 Till the whole world together shall be welded 
 
 By love s eternal fires in Heaven first lit, 
 
 Bound in a universal brotherhood 
 
 Wherein the mighty shall defend the weak, 
 
 The strong unto the feeble minister, 
 
 And men and nations shall take up the cause 
 
 Of even the lowliest of the sons of men, 
 
 Nor any longer live for self alone, 
 
 Nor prey upon a neighbor s welfare, no, 
 
 Nor stoop to gain advantage with dishonor; 
 
 But humankind in love divine shall grow 
 
 Unto the stature of the Perfect Man, 
 
 Into the likeness of the Son of God 
 
 And Self at last with Him be crucified! " 
 
 (How faint, how faint the vision flits afar!) 
 
 Then shall ye know how thin the shadowy veil 
 
 That I have hung twixt Earth and Heaven; how 
 
 both 
 Matter and spirit I subservient make 
 
<3oal of 3Lit>ertg 127 
 
 Unto my ends, till matter own the spirit 
 
 Master and ye do send your thought afar 
 
 To do your will, even mountains to remove; 
 
 And do refresh the waste of barren lives, 
 
 And do confound intrenched iniquity 
 
 With spiritual forces like a tide 
 
 Rolling from hearts that heave with love s great 
 
 billows 
 
 Crested with marvels vast, new prodigies 
 Wrought by love s mystical telepathy, 
 Deep, nascent, psychic energies unknown, 
 High powers which ye, my children, shall inherit 
 Led in the footsteps of the Son of Man 
 When time is ripe that I should call them forth. 
 More potent these than armaments and war 
 What time my chosen moved with strong desire 
 Swaying as grain before the Spirit s breath 
 Focus their hearts upon each common foe 
 Quailing astounded at the Spirit s might. 
 So winds of summer, sweet with meadow-bloom, 
 Refresh the poison fen and stagnant pool 
 And sweep their pestilential breath away. 
 Then answering thought my guiding thought shall 
 
 follow 
 And I will show you greater things to come 
 
Wctor 
 
 For ye shall rule with me and shall command 
 Obedient, subtile forces that control 
 The mighty movements of the universe, 
 And I will satisfy your longing souls 
 And princes ye shall be, the sons of God. 
 For I will give you larger freedom far 
 Than mortal heart has ever dared conceive 
 In all its wildest dreams of liberty! " 
 
 CXXXIV 
 
 Lov st thou the voice of ocean s breaking wave, 
 The spirit of the mountains, wild and free ; 
 
 Hast thou a patriot s heart thy land to save, 
 And knowest thou no loftier liberty ? 
 
 Dost thou not long to break the galling chain 
 That binds thee to a slave s dull, narrow life ? 
 
 Dost thou not long to be a child again, 
 
 Free from life s bondage and unctastng strife ? 
 
 If thou wouldst manhood s dream of freedom know, 
 And feel thyself indeed creation s heir, 
 
 Seek thou His liberty who loves thee so 
 
 That He thy burdens on His heart doth bear, 
 
Goal ot XibertE 129 
 
 Seek thou the freedom of the Son of God, 
 Who came thy princely birthright to reveal 
 
 Who bore the stroke of thine oppressor s rod j 
 Who died thy glorious liberty to seal ! 
 
 His freedman, thou laws bondage mayst ignore 
 And to thyself a law supreme shalt be ; 
 
 Thy fetters then forgetting to deplore, 
 
 Whateer thy lot, thou shalt indeed be free ! 
 
 cxxxv 
 
 Our hearts cry out for freedom, we would be 
 Unshackled, Mighty Parent, as Thou art; 
 But is the fearful price of freedom risk 
 Of utter loss and ruin, and must that 
 Dark shadow ever haunt her footsteps fair 
 With awful shapes of terror and despair ? 
 
 CXXXVI 
 
 What then is freedom s limit, where its end 
 This precious boon by Heaven bestowed on men, 
 This priceless right to every creature dear ? 
 What in the last analysis but this : 
 Each power and faculty divinely given 
 
iso Cbrfetus Dictor 
 
 In fullest scope to use and to enjoy, 
 Within the metes and bounds that God has set! 
 Has He full license given to erring men ? 
 Would He bestow upon us unchecked power 
 Ourselves to ruin, His own work to spoil, 
 Himself to mock, His purpose to defeat ? 
 Here is our limit, here our freedom ends 
 Man may climb high but cannot God dethrone. 
 God is still Sovereign and His rule supreme. 
 
 CXXXVII 
 
 Above the clouds the soaring eagle mounts 
 High o er his lofty home, but there must halt, 
 Though stout of heart he vainly, vainly beats 
 With baffled wing the thin and yielding air! 
 
 CXXXVIII 
 
 We who for boundless freedom strive are chained 
 With iron fetters to this flying sphere, 
 That rushes headlong, heedless of our cries. 
 Feeble we come from darkness into light 
 And swift to darkness flit away again ; 
 We come when called, we go when summoned 
 hence : 
 
3Brave f>eart of /Iftan 131 
 
 Free though we seem, yet are we firmly bound. 
 Hunger and penury, disease and death, 
 The wayward elements, the heat, the cold, 
 The storms and tempests of our earthly lot 
 Mark out the limits of our liberty. 
 Freedom is hedged with adamantine walls 
 We cannot climb, and cannot overthrow; 
 Upon them pass and re-pass sentinels 
 Divinely set to keep inviolate 
 The holy ground of God s prerogative! 
 
 CXXXIX 
 
 Wild storms across the ocean rage uncurbed 
 Till on the rockbound coast they rush amain 
 Where ancient, weather-beaten crags, unmoved 
 By all the tumult of the thundering sea, 
 Disdainful hurl the invading legions back 
 And mock the fury of the winds and waves. 
 
 CXL 
 
 In spite of all the ills of life, 
 The grinding toil, the rasping strife, 
 What mighty works of hand and pen 
 Have been achieved by mortal men 
 In spite of all, in spite of all! 
 
132 Gbrtetus IDictot 
 
 Through long millenniums slowly past 
 His pyramids unshaken last, 
 Still witnessing mid shifting sands 
 The triumph of those withered hands 
 In spite of all, in spite of all! 
 
 Though crumbling ruin disappear 
 The immortal epic still I hear, 
 That, when this agld world was young 
 In spite of all for me was sung, 
 In spite of all, in spite of all! 
 
 Though bound to earth with iron chains 
 The soul her prison-house disdains, 
 Essaying with audacious wing 
 Vast searchings for some deathless thing, 
 In spite of all, in spite of all! 
 
 CXLI 
 
 From the vexed shore I watched the storming main ; 
 The trembling earth recoiled and shook again 
 As from the blows of some gigantic hand 
 That hurled the billows high upon the sand. 
 Rejoicing thought I: " Mighty though thou art, 
 Less mighty thou, O Sea, than man s brave heart. 
 
JBrave Ibeart of /Hban 133 
 
 " Thou canst not heave thy raging waves so high 
 But some proud keel thy fury will defy; 
 Thou hast no depths so gloomy or profound 
 Man with his daring plummet may not sound, 
 And while thy tempests and tornadoes roar 
 He whispers through the deep, from shore to 
 shore! " 
 
 CXLII 
 
 No petty bounds has God around us drawn 
 Nor will He close us in a narrow space; 
 Undaunted and unsatisfied, the soul 
 Of man cries out for other, larger worlds. 
 Not any world, nor all the worlds can sate 
 That quenchless thirst God only can appease, 
 That breath divine into his nostrils breathed 
 When the Almighty Parent gave him life. 
 
 CXLIII 
 
 I stood beneath the blazing dome of night; 
 My spirit shrank within me at the sight; 
 I was as nothing, yea, the earth was lost 
 In the still presence of that mighty host. 
 
134 Cbrtstus IDictor 
 
 Yet heard I from the heavens a whisper fall ; 
 " Rejoice, O man, thy Father made them all; 
 A child of God, thyself a god shalt be, 
 Heir of the riches of infinity! " 
 
 CXLIV 
 
 Free through our Father s kingdom shall we roam, 
 With treasure stored, against our coming home; 
 Explore the labyrinth of worlds on high, 
 Whose distant glory lights the starry sky ; 
 And He will lead us o er the glittering plain 
 And show the wonders of His vast domain; 
 Show us the works that He for us had wrought 
 When we were living only in His thought. 
 There will He show us fields for nobler strife 
 And room for larger, ever larger life. 
 So measureless His wealth, so great His might 
 That He could give us each an orb of light, 
 A glorious world to rule, our own to call, 
 And He would have enough to spare for all! 
 Yet from the throne of His almighty power 
 He stoops to paint the tiny wayside flower; 
 In pity sees the little wounded bird 
 Whose death-cry by no other ear is heard ; 
 
Circle ot ILove 135 
 
 And on the trusting child-heart, meek and pure, 
 His greater kingdom founds, forever to endure. 
 
 CXLV 
 
 Think not that love is feeble or supine, 
 Or yields to wrong, or would at ease recline; 
 Love is no sickly dotard bent with years, 
 No blushing maiden melting into tears. 
 
 Love is a mighty passion and a flame 
 
 No force can overpower, no conquest tame; 
 
 Love is all-strong to knit us man to man ; 
 
 Ah, when will Earth consent to Heaven s plan ? 
 
 Unlike aught else in earth or sea or sky, 
 Love must itself impart or wilt and die; 
 Love grows by giving and is not content 
 Unless for its beloved it is spent. 
 
 Love is an angel whose awakening light 
 Can rouse the darkest soul, sunk deep in night; 
 Sent to refresh mankind so long oppressed, 
 Love yet shall light the world, for love is best. 
 
136 Gbrtetus Victor 
 
 CXLVI 
 
 Lofty the patriot s love of Fatherland, 
 As on the battle-field with open arms 
 He rushes on the foe in fierce embrace, 
 And gathering to his heart a sheaf of spears, 
 Exulting cries: " Make way for liberty! " 
 
 CXLVII 
 
 Strong are the bonds of friendship firm and tried, 
 Soul answering soul in sweet communion true. 
 See friend for friend upon the scaffold mount, 
 Before the unsuspecting headsman kneel 
 And, life for life resigning with a smile, 
 Pay for his friend the last dread penalty! 
 
 CXLVIII 
 
 Royal the lover of his fellow-men 
 
 Whose heart with pity springs the weak to aid. 
 
 Though furious breakers wildly plunge and roar 
 
 The life-boat bears him to the shipwrecked crew, 
 
 Lashed to the frozen rigging in despair; 
 
 A succor to the helpless left alone 
 
 When from the stricken town the people fly 
 
Circle of 5Love 137 
 
 The pestilence, as leaves before the storm ; 
 Moving among the wounded and the dead 
 Where pity s angels raise the Red Cross banner; 
 Self-exiled on the leper s lonely isle, 
 Content with them to dwell, with them to die, 
 If he may help them bear their hopeless lot; 
 A brother to the captive in his cell 
 Sick and in prison and disconsolate 
 Unknowing visits and consoles his Lord ! 
 
 CXLIX 
 
 Ah, love and love alone at last will solve 
 All the vast, threatening questions that distract 
 Mankind; that fellow-men in strife array, 
 And the whole world with fierce contention rend. 
 Still keep your idle millions under arms 
 Fed on the borrowed substance of the poor 
 Still watch each other with keen jealousy, 
 Still slaughter thousands on the field of war, 
 Or strive with statesman s craft to arbitrate; 
 Thread the sly mazes of diplomacy, 
 Try communistic cures for every ill, 
 And when all fails at last for lack, of love, 
 Try love the mightiest of them all and win ! 
 
*38 dbrfstus Wctor 
 
 CL 
 
 Tender affections at the hearthstone dwell, 
 Foregleams of heavenly bliss that hallow home. 
 O gentle sister, thy sweet ministry 
 Softens like angel s touch the couch of pain 
 What purer love has earth to show than thine! 
 Wondrous the marvel and the spell of love 
 That clothes the earth with new and tender light 
 Shed from the halo round the loved one s brow 
 And for the lover makes creation new! 
 O wedded love, how like the echoes fly 
 From heart to heart, unceasing to and fro, 
 The pain, the joy, the rapture evermore, 
 What magic this, of twain to make but one! 
 
 CLI 
 
 Stronger than death, or life, or death in life 
 The mother true recks not of ease or pain 
 So she may comfort and defend her child; 
 Sure refuge this, when other there is none. 
 O little arms that softly round her twine, 
 Cling with your tendrils to this sacred tree 
 That with perennial beauty ever blooms 
 We need no further go Heaven s peace to find. 
 
Circle of Hove 139 
 
 O father, living over early days 
 
 In boyish pastimes with thy first-born son, 
 
 Thou knowest whether love be strong or no. 
 
 O infant, smiling in thy father s arms, 
 
 Lone rescued waif from the wild storm of death 
 
 Engulfing mother, children, all save thee, 
 
 Soft on his stricken heart a blessing lie 
 
 Night-blooming cereus in his midnight gloom 
 
 At early dawn of thy dear life. What more 
 
 Of comfort for the past s dark mystery 
 
 Could Heaven bestow to keep him from despair ? 
 
 CLII 
 
 The babe forlorn and motherless 
 
 She laid upon her heart love-starved and lone ; 
 Her soul went forth in each caress, 
 
 Her wealth of love outpoured in every tone. 
 
 When smiled the Spring with blithesome lays 
 In flowery paths she led the little feet, 
 
 And in the dark and stormy days 
 
 Her fond, protecting arms made refuge sweet. 
 
MO Cbrtetus IDictor 
 
 CLIII 
 
 Such noble gleams of love our life adorn 
 
 So full of sordid care and hard routine 
 
 Like precious jewels in an iron crown. 
 
 Behold the torch s flame, the patriot fires 
 
 That burn where myriad martyred heroes fell, 
 
 Lighting the path of Truth and Liberty; 
 
 Behold the golden net of friendship wove 
 
 From heart to heart, to earth s remotest bound; 
 
 Behold the mother-love exhaustless flowing 
 
 Where murmurous toilers with laborious drone, 
 
 Mid their sole summer s bloom, ere soon they die 
 
 Garner rich stores to nourish young unborn ; 
 
 In wild beast lair, in hole of creeping thing, 
 
 In tuneful nest whose joy o erflows the wood, 
 
 In countless homes of men, or high or low, 
 
 Outpoured for helpless babes since time began ; 
 
 All pure and holy love of man or maid, 
 
 Of father for his son, of prodigal 
 
 For his lost home, of kith for kin, of man 
 
 For fellow-man behold beneath the sun ; 
 
 Yea, of blest spirits, of celestial hosts 
 
 That fill the heavens with love s sweet melody! 
 
 But what are these and all those untold powers 
 
Circle of Xove 141 
 
 Of sacred love, save sparks from that great flame 
 That unconsumed, burns like a central sun 
 With light too strong for our dull mortal sight; 
 What but light ripples on that boundless sea 
 Whose waters wrap the globe in their embrace 
 And wash the shores of every distant isle; 
 What but faint pulses of the mighty stream 
 That flows forever from the heart of God 
 All worlds to bathe, all souls to animate! 
 
 CLIV 
 
 Ah Lord, I fain would sing Thy praise 
 
 But feeble is my voice; 
 Yet when I dwell upon Thy love, 
 
 How can I but rejoice ? 
 
 I want no flickering candle flame 
 
 To light my doubtful way; 
 I want Thy love, the mighty sun 
 
 Whose glory fills the day. 
 
 Of all the splendors round Thy throne 
 
 I see but scattered rays; 
 Yet these, imperfect though my sight, 
 
 Have gladdened all my days. 
 
I4 2 Gbtistus IDictor 
 
 When on Thy breast my head I lay 
 
 In Thy strong love secure, 
 I care not how the tempests rave, 
 
 They cannot long endure! 
 
 When my cold winter feels the glow 
 
 Of Thy resplendent beams, 
 Immortal spring within me wakes 
 
 And sunlight on me streams! 
 
 CLV 
 
 Do well thy part 
 
 With hand and heart, 
 
 Nor let dull care 
 
 Thy spirit wear; 
 
 And when thou feel st how poor and weak thou art, 
 Lean thou thy head on God s almighty heart. 
 
 The fight is long, 
 
 The foe is strong; 
 
 Thy strength is small 
 
 And fears appall; 
 Fret not thyself to know how soon the strife will 
 
 end, 
 
 For thou may st safely leave it all to God thy 
 Friend. 
 
fee 1bas mo Master 143 
 
 CLVI 
 
 But are not mind and matter under law ? 
 And is there not in sin a law that drags 
 Us step by step to lower, darker depths 
 Until we perish in the foul abyss ? 
 
 CLVII 
 
 He rules by law, His law is over all 
 
 Who first appointed day and night, Who set 
 
 The varied seasons in procession fair 
 
 The hope of spring, the summer s life and joy, 
 
 The fruit of autumn and the winter s cold 
 
 Who gave a restless longing to the tide 
 
 That follows the bright moon from shore to shore, 
 
 Led by the witching spell of her fair face. 
 
 CLVIII 
 
 Well I recall the night 
 
 Of that rare summer day ! 
 A tender rosy light 
 
 Caressed the rippling bay j 
 
144 Cbristus Dfctor 
 
 The sunset splendor fell 
 Athwart heaven s arches high. 
 
 Till like a vast sea-shell 
 Transfigured rose the sky. 
 
 Down from the opal height 
 A pearl shone on the deep ; 
 
 Ifung on the breast of Night 
 To grace her balmy sleep. 
 
 The moonglade on the sea 
 A dream of glory /ay, 
 
 As if inviting me 
 
 Along the glittering way. 
 
 Why should the Queen of Night 
 Reach out her silver wand 
 
 And lay a path of light 
 To me upon the sand? 
 
 Would she her secret show ? 
 
 Am I her chosen one ? 
 Why follow where I go? 
 
 Am 1 heaven s favored son? 
 
1be Ibas Bo /llbaater 145 
 
 Fool, on whatever distant strand 
 
 The moon this night a man shall meet, 
 
 To him she points her mystic wand 
 And lays a pathway to his feet. 
 
 There s light and love in Heaven s rich store 
 For every man, on every shore ! 
 
 CLIX 
 
 The cyclone and tornado that we fear 
 Are but the eddies of the constant winds, 
 Those currents vast, those great aerial tides 
 That flow by God s command from zone to zone, 
 Laden with blessing for the thirsty land. 
 By His great power all forces interchange, 
 One universal force of many forms, 
 Even of one substance all the elements 
 That build the solid earth and all thereon, 
 Emblem and effluence of His unity. 
 By His deep thought the electric current runs 
 To move a million wheels at man s behest, 
 From motion unto heat, from heat to light 
 Fierce heat of tropic suns ere man appeared ; 
 Light born of light of long primeval days, 
 Deep hidden till man s need should call it forth 
 
146 Gbristus ItMctor 
 
 From sunless caverns, black with ancient gloom. 
 At His command the elements, in haste, 
 Each with its own affinity, combine 
 In countless forms of order and of grace: 
 The smooth-cut crystal and the spiral shell ; 
 Bird plumage and the blushing flower of spring, 
 The tinted autumn leaf, the snowy wreath, 
 He to each atom gives relentless law! 
 
 CLX 
 
 God rules by law, but law can never bind 
 His sovereign power, or to His will set bounds 
 Who made the worlds and called us from the dust. 
 He has no master, law is not His lord, 
 Tis but the record of His way, the path 
 Made by His footsteps through the universe. 
 Untrammelled and alone His way He takes 
 And who shall say His path He may not choose ? 
 While Nature with her wondrous processes 
 And inarticulate speech in myriad tongues 
 Unutterable longings strives in vain 
 Her homage to her august Ruler to proclaim. 
 
1be 1bas mo faster 147 
 
 CLXI 
 
 He whose slow movements look to our dull eyes 
 
 Which cannot see beyond this transient phase 
 
 In the vast cycles of Creative Thought 
 
 Like changeless laws, inexorably fixed, 
 
 Sole Legislator is, the Primal Cause 
 
 Of all the stately order of the world ; 
 
 Sole Legislator and Executive. 
 
 CLXII 
 
 He who created heavenly orbs to roll 
 In paths, marked out by His almighty hand, 
 That will not let them swerve from age to age; 
 Who moves the hearts of men to will and do 
 While mind, unknowing, follows His deep law 
 By law He rules, but of it all the soul, 
 The reason, motive, aim and end is love; 
 For man s eternal good His laws were made 
 To save one soul He would annul them all! 
 
 CLXIII 
 
 He who each atom guards so jealously 
 That in great Nature s ever changing forms 
 
148 Cbristus Dictoc 
 
 No particle is lost, no waste is made 
 
 Of her stupendous energy, who hears 
 
 The hungry raven s cry for food, who sees 
 
 Each little sparrow as it falls, who clothes 
 
 The lilies of the field in regal hues; 
 
 Will surely never let a precious soul 
 
 Breath of His breath, life of His life drift off 
 
 Into eternal night beyond His reach, 
 
 In self-wrought ruin wrecked, an utter loss; 
 
 Will not permit the will of man to thwart 
 
 His will supreme, nor let another sit 
 
 Upon His throne, and the dark powers of Hell 
 
 And anarchy usurp His government. 
 
 CLXIV 
 
 T is but a spectral phantom of the night; 
 There is no room for two, God filleth all. 
 Evil is not God s rival, t is his slave 
 Who yet shall serve Him, though he now rebel. 
 Fear not, Almighty Love is at the helm ! 
 
 CLXV 
 
 We may be fellow-laborers with God, 
 
 But t is of grace He lets us work with Him, 
 
<3oD 10 a Spirit 149 
 
 That of His joy a foretaste we may know. 
 Slight need has He that any human hand 
 Should steady, with presumptuous touch, the Ark 
 The golden Ark that bears man s destiny 
 Upon its journey toward His Holy Place 
 Whither, in serried ranks, the generations march ! 
 
 CLXVI 
 
 God is a Spirit; they that worship Him 
 
 Must worship Him in spirit and in truth. 
 
 Nor dwelleth He in temples made with hands; 
 
 God is a Spirit; He enfolds the world 
 
 In His embrace as flows the atmosphere 
 
 Around the earth, submerging all thereon 
 
 In viewless waves. In Him we live and move 
 
 As in the all-pervading air. In Him 
 
 We have our being and He is not far 
 
 From every one of us; more intimate, 
 
 More necessary than the air we breathe. 
 
 And of one blood all nations hath He made, 
 
 Whose times, whose habitations and whose bounds 
 
 He hath before determined and appointed 
 
 Mankind the offspring of Almighty God! 
 
 Nor is He only here in our small world; 
 
iso Cbrtetus IDictor 
 
 If we on eagle wings of thought ascend 
 
 The ethereal heights of heaven, awe-stricken, lost 
 
 Amid the mighty maze, lo, God is there 
 
 And like the subtile ether bathes all worlds, 
 
 O erflowing boundless interstellar voids. 
 
 If fleeing Him we make our bed in Hell, 
 
 There too is God ; even there through all the gloom 
 
 His sunrise breaks to herald coming day! 
 
 We have no measure for Him, time is naught 
 
 And space too small, our thought He doth elude; 
 
 When we would give Him highest praise and call 
 
 Him Light and Love, we stumble in our night, 
 
 Lisping faint echoes only of His name. 
 
 CLXVII 
 
 Of Him and to and through Him all things are ; 
 He fills the earth, the sea, the air with forms 
 In number infinite, a countless host; 
 He from His treasury with generous hand 
 His boundless riches scatters far and wide; 
 He peoples ocean deeps and forest wilds 
 The solitude and busy haunts of men 
 With teeming life in vast profusion poured 
 From His exhaustless fount in swelling floods 
 
IRfver of 3Lite 151 
 
 From year to year, great Source and Goal of Life! 
 
 Endless diversity, each life a thought 
 
 Of God, unique, incarnate thought divine. 
 
 How precious are Thy thoughts to me, O God! 
 
 How great the sum of them! If I should count, 
 
 Behold, they are more in number than the sand! 
 
 Vast evolution of revolving worlds, 
 
 Endless procession of the centuries, 
 
 The rise and fall of races and of empires, 
 
 All men, all things, all movements, all events 
 
 Show forth the varied phases of His thought 
 
 At one in the vast sweep of His design 
 
 All tributary to the stream that flows 
 
 From age to age His purpose to fulfil. 
 
 To us that stream meanders, sluggish, slow, 
 
 With many an eddying pool and backward turn ; 
 
 To His clear sight, through His unwasting years, 
 
 To swell the waters of Unfathomed Love, 
 
 A mighty river rushes to the sea, 
 
 Sprung from the depths of His majestic unity! 
 
 CLXVIII 
 
 T is but His hand that doth encompass us. 
 Hid in the hollow of that fostering palm, 
 
*5 2 Gbrtetus Wctor 
 
 Like precious pearls the glowing planets lie, 
 And with them burning suns as diamonds flash. 
 These from His hand let "slip roll forth to shine 
 In starry halo circling round His head, 
 And like a garment wove of light down-sweeping- 
 Rich fiery gems inwrought with regal splendor- 
 Veiling with light the Light Ineffable, 
 Forth from His feet they flow, a mystic stream 
 Each glistening drop a sun, each wave a system- 
 Spray-dust of worlds tost by the mighty current, 
 River of Life, resistless and sublime, 
 Voices of many waters uttering praise! 
 
 CLXIX 
 
 O Love Supreme, wilt Thou not speak 
 In tones that we can tmder stand, 
 And lead us by Thy guiding hand? 
 
 Unaided, Thee we vainly seek. 
 
 CLXX 
 
 Rend Thou the heavens and hasten down, 
 Bring light where lowers Fate s darksome frown, 
 
WetleO in ur tflesb 153 
 
 Show man the heights from whence he came, 
 Confuse his evil thoughts with shame. 
 Unveil Thy face in dazzling splendor hid, 
 
 O Thou whom all the happy heavens adore, 
 Come dwell the sufferers of earth amid, 
 
 Come heal the hearts of men with travail sore. 
 Almighty One, draw nearer to our race 
 And by some new disclosure of Thy grace 
 Reveal to troubled man Thine unknown face! 
 
 CLXXI 
 
 He for us men, to share our toil and pain 
 And grief and lead us to immortal joy, 
 Dwelt in our flesh that we might see His face; 
 And that dread face on which no mortal man 
 Could look and live, before whose searching light 
 The earth and heaven fled and there was found 
 No place for them, that face, veiled in our flesh, 
 Veiled as the sun s fierce splendor in the moon, 
 The moonlight in the placid ocean s gleam, 
 So full of grace and help and brotherhood, 
 Shall draw us to Himself until all men 
 In every clime, shall seek and find their Lord. 
 
r 54 Cbtistue Victor 
 
 CLXXII 
 
 How strong art Thou, great Son of God ? 
 
 Canst Thou bid sin s wild tumult cease ? 
 Canst Thou destroy oppression s rod 
 
 And lead the nations forth in peace ? 
 
 Great Son of God, art Thou so strong 
 That we may safely cling to Thee 
 
 Assured, though troubles round us throng, 
 Thy triumph we at last shall see ? 
 
 Great Son of God, art Thou so strong 
 
 Thou over all wilt Victor be, 
 Leading behind Thee Death and Wrong, 
 
 Spoils of Thy mighty victory ? 
 
 Canst Thou with life s dark evils cope ? 
 
 Dost Thou our fears and sorrows know ? 
 Canst Thou fulfil immortal hope; 
 
 Or must we to some other go ? 
 
 To whom, to whom then shall we turn ? 
 
 Whose hand shall point our homeward way ? 
 
1bow Strong Bit Gbou 155 
 
 What other friendly beacons burn 
 With light to guide us to the day ? 
 
 Thou who the wrath of man didst bear 
 
 And meekly his reviling took; 
 Who would his pain and sorrow share 
 When cruel he his Friend forsook, 
 Tell me what wondrous recompense Thy love will 
 
 give 
 
 To one who would not suffer Thee with him to 
 live! 
 
 CLXXIII 
 
 O Desire of every nation, 
 
 Canst Thou lead me to the goal ? 
 
 Hast Thou truth s clear revelation ? 
 Hast Thou quiet for my soul ? 
 
 For Thy rest my heart is yearning, 
 Make my peace and joy complete; 
 
 Meekly of my Teacher learning, 
 See me waiting at Thy feet. 
 
 Mighty Saviour, Elder Brother, 
 Draw me nearer, nearer Thee; 
 
Cbrfgtus Dfctoc 
 
 Be my Guide, I have no other, 
 Lead to perfect liberty. 
 
 Give me of Thy heavenly treasure, 
 Let me now Thy glory see, 
 
 Heir of triumph without measure, 
 Show Thy way to victory! 
 
 CLXXIV 
 
 Is it a mighty, rushing wind 
 
 Whose hurried breath I feel ? 
 Do echoes of the thunder deep 
 
 Roll nearer, peal on peal ? 
 The Spirit of Almighty God 
 
 I thought, swept quickly by; 
 Great Messenger of Love to man 
 
 With blessings from on high. 
 
 The serried hosts of Heaven are hushed 
 
 In awe, with one accord 
 They all expectant wait to hear 
 
 The answer of their Lord, 
 That with a greater joy makes glad 
 
 The realms of heavenly bliss 
 
Bareness at tbe Gross 157 
 
 And lights with Hope s angelic smile 
 Earth s sorrow, sin s abyss! 
 
 CLXXV 
 
 And then upon my ear there fell a Voice 
 So full of sympathy it seemed to bear 
 The woes of all the ages in its heart. 
 About the Voice of Majesty there clung 
 And blossomed tones of infinite desire, 
 Sweeter than if all voices that I love 
 In one loved song their tendrils intertwined, 
 Yet strong to bear the weight of sin, of grief 
 Yea, the stupendous burden of the world. 
 Breathless I heard, and hung upon that Voice 
 As clings the trembling vine upon the oak 
 That wrestles with the whirlwind and the night. 
 
 CLXXVI 
 
 " Crucified in shame and anguish, 
 Left in mortal pain to languish, 
 
 Broken-hearted and alone; 
 Powers of evil overtook me, 
 God Himself, I thought, forsook me, 
 
 Darkness gathered round His throne. 
 
158 Cbrfstus IDictor 
 
 " Then, like billows o er me breaking, 
 While the earth with fear was shaking, 
 
 All the sorrows of the world 
 Filled my heart to overflowing; 
 And the tempest, fiercely blowing, 
 
 On my head its fury hurled. 
 
 In the darkness round me fluttered 
 Frightful forms that wildly uttered 
 
 Cries that smote me with dismay; 
 Cries from all the world, bewailing 
 Every woe mankind assailing, 
 
 Rose from out the vast array. 
 
 " Cries of scorn my love denying, 
 Cries of hate my love defying, 
 
 Cries of terror, loss and pain; 
 Man his brother man tormenting, 
 Crafty malice unrelenting, 
 
 Captives galled with slavery s chain. 
 
Barfcness at tbe Cross 159 
 
 " Ignorance and degradation, 
 Darkness veiling every nation, 
 
 With a hideous night-wove shroud; 
 Grovelling shapes of superstition 
 Hostile to my heavenly mission, 
 Hissing imprecations loud. 
 
 " Might o er right and truth prevailing, 
 Brutal force the weak assailing, 
 
 Who for mercy beg in vain ; 
 Base assassins darkly creeping 
 On unconscious victims, sleeping 
 
 Nevermore to wake again. 
 
 " Widowed hearts in anguish crying 
 For their lost ones, dead or dying 
 Where no human help can save; 
 Empty arms their darlings missing, 
 Mothers their dead infants kissing 
 Ere they give them to the grave. 
 
160 Cbristue \Dfctor 
 
 "Outcast, desolate, neglected, 
 Fatherless and unprotected, 
 
 Homeless children vainly plead; 
 None my little ones to cherish, 
 Sold in dens of shame to perish, 
 
 Ruined by inhuman greed. 
 
 Vampire Greed, insatiate, strangling, 
 In its loathsome wings entangling, 
 
 Slowly smothering, young and old; 
 On the poor and helpless battening, 
 On the blood of infants fattening. 
 
 Slain to sate its lust for gold. 
 
 Nations bought and sold like cattle, 
 Horrors of the siege and battle 
 
 Counted naught, so Greed may live; 
 Manhood crushed and Freedom harried, 
 Virtue to Oppression married, 
 
 Forced her hand for gold to give. 
 
S>arfcness at tbc Cross 161 
 
 11 War, the wide world desolating, 
 Home and honor desecrating, 
 
 Fierce ambition s tyranny; 
 Women s tears in terror flowing, 
 Helpless babes no mercy knowing, 
 
 Massacre and infamy. 
 
 Ruthless hands with slaughter reeking, 
 Ravished Night aghast and shrieking, 
 
 Lurid flames athwart the sky; 
 Neath the sword my people sinking, 
 Loathing Earth their life-blood drinking, 
 
 Loud and long their bitter cry! 
 
 Plague and Famine, grimly stalking, 
 Hand in hand together walking 
 
 Like twin spectres through the lands; 
 Stricken men like dead leaves falling, 
 Loud for bread, for succor calling, 
 
 Reaching out weak, helpless hands. 
 
162 Cbvtetus Wctor 
 
 " Sotted men, by man s temptation 
 Lured to lower degradation 
 
 Till they grovel in the mire; 
 By the still s dread serpent bitten. 
 With infernal frenzy smitten, 
 
 Every vein aflame with fire! 
 
 Sin, a silver voice alluring, 
 New delights and joys assuring, 
 
 Gay with gladsome revelry; 
 With her harlot-smile essaying 
 Man to conquer, while betraying 
 
 With beguiling devilry. 
 
 " Sin, a stealthy serpent hiding, 
 In low ambush lurking, gliding 
 
 On the unsuspecting prey; 
 In whose tightening folds entangled, 
 Vitals crushed and carcass mangled, 
 
 Courage, hope and life give way. 
 
Darftttett at tbe Grose 163 
 
 " Sin, a sore disease attacking, 
 With slow mutilation racking 
 
 Man s divinely moulded shape; 
 Limb by limb its poison blighting, 
 Man its dread advances fighting, 
 
 Dazed and hopeless of escape. 
 
 Sin, a ravening monster prowling, 
 For new victims ever howling, 
 
 What foul demon gave it birth ! 
 Sin, a whelming flood o erflowing 
 Every bulwark, wildly strewing 
 
 Wreck and ruin through the earth! 
 
 Sin s mad folly unrepented, 
 Men by sin and woe demented, 
 
 Reason driven from her throne; 
 All the world sin-sick and dying, 
 Man his Maker s will defying 
 
 Who shall man with God atone ? 
 
164 Gbrfstus Dictoc 
 
 " Sent to carry consolation 
 To mine own down-trodden nation 
 
 Whom in tender love I sought ; 
 Promised long and long expected, 
 Spit upon, despised, rejected, 
 
 All my travail set at nought! 
 
 Crowned a king with ribald mocking, 
 
 Dragged through crowds like vultures flocking, -j 
 
 Doomed with sinners to be slain; 
 Love s supremest revelation, 
 Love s eternal consummation, 
 
 Spurned by Gentiles with disdain. 
 
 " Deeper than the thorn s incision 
 Sank the mocking crowd s derision 
 
 And the scoffer s fiery dart; 
 Fiercer than the rough nails crushing 
 Through my flesh, upon me rushing 
 
 Cruel hatred pierced my heart. 
 
Sbou Bll maticms Sbalt flnberft 165 
 
 " For the world my blood was flowing, 
 Love to all the ages showing, 
 
 For the world and nothing less; 
 Should my love be thus defeated, 
 Should my work be ne er completed, 
 
 Should my sorrows fail to bless ? 
 
 " Should man s direful need o erpower me, 
 Should the jaws of night devour me 
 
 Where vast, formless terrors loom ? 
 Deeper, deadlier, drifting, drifting, 
 Naught of light the blackness rifting, 
 
 Fell impenetrable gloom. 
 
 " Crushed by sin, for sinners bleeding, 
 Hopeless love for sinners pleading 
 
 Met man s last great enemy ; 
 Torn by grief, forspent with wonder, 
 By my passion rent asunder, 
 
 Broke my heart in agony. 
 
166 Cbri8tu0 IDictor 
 
 " Why, my God, hast Thou forsaken 
 And Thy succor from me taken ; 
 
 Why in darkness hid Thy face ? 
 Then from glory swift descending 
 And in pity o er me bending, 
 
 Love Almighty sought me there; 
 Clasped me close, death-stricken, shrinking, 
 All my senses fainting, sinking 
 
 In the stupor of despair; 
 And at once I was victorious, 
 Strengthened by a vision glorious; 
 
 Vision of triumphant grace! 
 
 Thou all nations shalt inherit/ 
 Spake the Comforter, the Spirit, 
 
 And Thou shalt not die in vain. 
 Precious seed Thy blood shall nourish, 
 Till o er all the earth shall flourish 
 
 Harvests ripe with golden grain. 
 
 " When Thy travail shall be over, 
 
 Thou, man s changeless Friend and Lover, 
 Shalt be fully satisfied. 
 
Sbou Hit matton0 Sbatt Unbccit 167 
 
 Nevermore shall aught defeat Thee, 
 
 God in glory soon shall greet Thee, 
 
 Thee His Son, so sorely tried! 
 
 Then, ah, then my sorrows ended, 
 As to God my cry ascended: 
 
 1 It is finished, and I died. 
 And a pang of consternation 
 And a trembling seized creation, 
 Palpitating deep and wide! 
 
 " And Death sheathed his sword and cried 
 I surrender, Galilean; 
 Though I smote Thee sore, Thy paean 
 
 Soon with joy shall fill the skies. 
 Thou art Master, more than mortal. 
 Though, betrayed, to me they sold Thee, 
 
 I, defeated, shall behold Thee 
 Through my stronghold s broken portal 
 
 Lord of Life and Death arise! 
 
168 Cbrfstus Dictor 
 
 " From afar, with malediction, 
 Sin beheld my crucifixion, 
 Read therein impending doom, 
 Fled with muttered imprecations* 
 Sowing discord through the nations 
 Breeding terror, blight and gloom 
 
 " Cup of sorrows fiercely blended 
 In my Father s hand extended, 
 Deep in mortal anguish sunken, 
 I the bitter dregs have drunken 
 
 Man to lead to God his Home; 
 Day of shame, with terror crowded, 
 Day of dread, in darkness shrouded, 
 There obedient love and meekness 
 Found, through seeming loss and weakness 
 Found for man love s hidden treasure 
 Love s deep mystery did measure- 
 Love s full stream no limits knowing, 
 From my cross forever flowing 
 Prayer of all the ages granting, 
 Deathless seed of promise planting, 
 I the world have overcome! 
 
Cbou BU flattens Sbalt ITnberit 169 
 
 " Long the conflict will be raging, 
 Powers of Heaven and Earth engaging, 
 
 But the end is fixed and sure; 
 Powers of evil in alliance, 
 Hurl at me their fierce defiance, 
 
 But my kingdom shall endure. 
 
 I upon my heart have taken 
 
 All the world with conflict shaken, 
 
 Hurt by sin, by grief oppressed; 
 Ye who heavy burdens carry, 
 Come, I love you, do not tarry, 
 
 Come and I will give you rest. 
 
 11 All the hosts that never knew me, 
 E en the foes that mocked and slew me, 
 
 I will draw all men to me ; 
 Men and spirits in commotion, 
 Like the tide-swept, moon-led ocean, 
 
 Drawn by love to Calvary. 
 
i7o Gbrtstus Victor 
 
 " I to Hades have descended 
 And the imprisoned souls befriended, 
 
 Bearing hope of liberty; 
 There my right as Victor claiming, 
 Wrath and sin and terror taming 
 
 Hades moved shall flee to me. 
 
 Every fetter shall be broken ; 
 In my cross behold the token 
 
 And the pledge of liberty; 
 I will banish all oppression 
 Till, throughout my vast possession 
 
 Every creature shall be free. 
 
 " Sin its victims shall surrender, 
 I will be their strong defender, 
 
 I my healing will impart ; 
 Cruel death no more shall sever, 
 Sorrow s reign shall cease forever, 
 
 I will comfort every heart. 
 
Gbou 811 flattens Sbalt Unberit 171 
 
 Death, once like a despot seated, 
 I have challenged and defeated, 
 
 Overturned the tyrant s throne; 
 And the shadow has been lifted, 
 Clouds of night with glory rifted, 
 
 In thick darkness light is sown. 
 
 Lo, the light of hope is breaking, 
 Myriads from their slumber waking, 
 
 It shall cheer all souls at last; 
 Hope unfailing, never ending, 
 Light into the darkness sending, 
 
 Till the troubled night is past, 
 
 " Then my peace forever flowing, 
 Like the south wind softly blowing, 
 
 Calling forth the joy of spring; 
 To all hearts with conflict weary, 
 Worn with care and labors dreary, 
 
 Everlasting rest shall bring. 
 
Cbristus Ifltctor 
 
 Offspring of celestial fountains 
 In the everlasting mountains, 
 
 Truth shall flow, a gladdening stream; 
 With its flood of living waters 
 To refresh earth s sons and daughters 
 And from Error s rule redeem. 
 
 Then transcendent in her beauty, 
 Faithful long to love and duty, 
 
 I shall clasp my Church, my Bride! 
 Then the lone and disappointed, 
 Sought for by the Lord s Anointed, 
 
 Shall at last be satisfied. 
 
 " Then unto my Father bringing 
 All His children, glad and singing, 
 
 They His glorious face shall see; 
 In love-marshalled hosts before Him 
 All the nations shall adore Him, 
 
 Strong in life and liberty. 
 
Sbou ail 1Ratlon0 Sbalt IFnberit 173 
 
 " Let this vision ever cheer thee, 
 Tell the nations, let them hear thee, 
 
 Every soul to me is dear; 
 Tell to all mankind the story 
 Wouldst thou haste the coming glory, 
 Bear good tidings far and near. 
 
 11 Bear my word to every creature; 
 I will be thy Guide and Teacher, 
 
 Keeping ever at thy side; 
 Let no doubt thy faith diminish, 
 I my work will surely finish, 
 
 Bid thy heart my time abide. 
 
 " See the waiting hosts that need thee, 
 Come, Beloved, I will lead thee, 
 
 Love is conquering the world ; 
 Give thyself, thyself unheeding, 
 For thy brother toiling, bleeding 
 
 Where my banner is unfurled. 
 
Wctor 
 
 " Have thou courage, do not falter, 
 God his purpose will not alter, 
 
 Let thy heart be undismayed ; 
 Death from his pale horse unseated, 
 Hell destroyed and sin defeated, 
 Love triumphant, joy completed, 
 
 God by all shall be obeyed !" 
 
 CLXXVII 
 
 Like organ tones that with majestic roll 
 
 And deep reverberation stir the soul, 
 
 The listener s weary heart with rapture fill, 
 
 Until with heavenly peace its pulses thrill; 
 
 That lift the thoughts above the sordid strife 
 
 And call to loftier, fairer, holier life, 
 
 That voice through all my being surged and swelled 
 
 And restless doubt and fear forever quelled. 
 
 The very air was tremulous with joy, 
 
 No anxious thoughts could vex, no cares annoy; 
 
 And when the last sweet strains had died away 
 
 The heavens and earth were bright with coming 
 
 day. 
 
 Deep in my heart responsive echoes rang, 
 And glad with grateful praises, softly sang. 
 
Soul 2>otb dtagnifg tbe 3Lor& 175 
 CLXXVIII 
 
 Lord of my waiting soul, Thou Saviour dear, 
 Why should I longer doubt, what shall I fear ? 
 Come dwell with me, forever be my guest, 
 That I may share Thy toil and know Thy rest. 
 Thou showest me a foregleam of the day, 
 To cheer my drooping heart and light my way. 
 Even though the path I cannot plainly see, 
 Through the drear wilderness I follow Thee. 
 Thou every erring step wilt guide aright 
 Till night is gone and I behold the light! 
 
 CLXXIX 
 
 And then a sound of triumph I could hear 
 
 Ring through the air around me far and near, 
 
 As if from Earth s vast multitudes a cry 
 
 Of joy arose and rent the echoing sky; 
 
 Innumerable voices from above 
 
 Hailing the victory of Almighty Love; 
 
 Voices of loved and lost ones gone before, 
 
 Of countless hosts that walk the earth no more, 
 
 Of spirits shining with celestial light, 
 
 Angels of God, archangels clothed with might; 
 
176 <Jbrfstu6 ItHctor 
 
 Chanting the praises of their risen Lord, 
 Worthy by Heaven and Earth to be adored 
 
 CLXXX 
 
 Slain by the Son of God All-glorious 
 Over our ancient foes victorious, 
 Evil shall die and man at last be free, 
 Crowned with the joy of his high destiny. 
 Then shall the mighty outspread arms of Love, 
 Down-reaching from our Father s home above, 
 Embrace a universe redeemed from sin 
 And gather all His long-lost children in. 
 To unimagined heights of glory led, 
 To unknown powers attaining, like our Head, 
 Like Him mankind at one with God shall be, 
 God all in all, oh wondrous unity ! 
 Forever then shall darkness flee away 
 Before the glories of triumphant day; 
 Storm shall be past and every discord cease 
 And man shall walk with God in endless peace. 
 
EPILOGUE 
 
 Move swiftly, earth, to meet the day ; 
 Hasten, O Christ, Thy blessed sway; 
 And when these faltering lips are dust 
 Some sweeter singer shall, I trust, 
 With eyes aglow, facing the Morning Star, 
 Awe- thrilled at sight of the Dayspring s triumph- 
 car, 
 
 Stress of Thy weary travail near its close, 
 Might of Thy love disarming all Thy foes, 
 The din of battle stilled, the ages ripe 
 Through struggles vast, approaching Thy fair type, 
 Shall with strange music never heard before, 
 Sweeter than bird-song, deeper than ocean s roar, 
 With heart aflame, swept by seraphic fire, 
 With hands that flying thrill the ecstatic wire, 
 In loftier, raptured measures praising Thee, 
 Herald Thy universal victory ! 
 177 
 
 V 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
INDEX OF FIRST LINES 
 
 STROPHE PAGE 
 
 I. Loud storms the tempest, heaven is black with 
 
 rage r 
 
 II. What is this that sits beside me ! . .2 
 
 III. O grisly phantom of a man .... 3 
 
 IV. Why shrink away from this grim skeleton ? . 6 
 V. With tension strong this framework of a man . 6 
 VI. See where the swelling muscles next were placed 7 
 VII. Through every part 
 
 A labyrinthic network winds, like some . . 7 
 VIII. The whole with art divine 
 
 Is rounded to the matchless form of man . 8 
 IX. Ah, who can tell the marvels of the eye . .8 
 X. Hark how the song of birds, 
 
 The merry laughter or the cry of pain . . 9 
 XI. Here sounds the voice, that peerless instrument 9 
 XII. High over all, the brain, thought s mighty vassal 10 
 XIII. Before such lavish beauty of design . . 10 
 
 XIV. New wonders crowding thick on every side . n 
 XV. They judge not rightly who, the husk earth- 
 stained . . . . . . .12 
 
 XVI. What man soe er I chance to see . . .12 
 XVII. Hold back thy hand . . . . .15 
 
 XVIII. Suppose a kindly word of mine . . .18 
 XIX. See where the sun, in fiery splendor sinking . 19 
 
 179 
 
i8o UnDej of fftrst Xincs 
 
 STROPHE PAGE 
 
 XX. How dream-like and unstable is the form . 20 
 
 XXI. T is certain thou must die, and even now . 21 
 
 XXII. Why dost thou drive me so, insatiate one? . 22 
 
 XXIII. The savage bending o er a pool . . . 23 
 
 XXIV. A tomb was built of massive stones . . 25 
 
 XXV. Hid in the chrysalis, this grovelling worm . 27 
 
 XXVI. I sought a lake among the peaceful hills . 27 
 
 XXVII. Within the egg, with deftly folded wing . 28 
 
 XXVIII. Do you remember, Love, the day . . 29 
 
 XXIX. Along the beach dead shells lie strewn, cast 
 
 off 30 
 
 XXX. As once I strolled beside the sun-lit sea . 30 
 
 XXXI. Low hung the sky, and gray and chill . 31 
 XXXII. Lo, the great earth itself with gradual 
 
 change ....... 32 
 
 XXXIII. O Mother Earth, who dost our spirits 
 
 clothe 33 
 
 XXXIV. See, in that rock-hewn garden sepulchre . 35 
 
 XXXV. Emancipator of the slaves of fear . . 36 
 
 XXXVI. Hail Victor, First-born from the dead ! . 40 
 XXXVII. What powers now vaguely felt with longing 
 
 deep 41 
 
 XXXVIII. Wait, my Beloved, wait . . . .42 
 
 XXXIX. Was it an answer to my cry ... 43 
 XL. From some commanding height that rears 
 
 its crest ....... 44 
 
 XLL Did early hope 45 
 
 XLII. Shall we not see life s mystery made plain . 45 
 X LI 1 1. Sleep, child of my love, Mother watches thy 
 
 slumber 46 
 
 XL1V. How tenderly doth mother-love embrace . 47 
 XLV. What splendors on my soul will break . 47 
 XLVI. Soul, in thy Father s home the skies are fair 49 
 XLVII. What joy to know the great of centuries past 49 
 XLVI II. No more these warriors lead their fellow- 
 men . . . . . . . 5 
 
flnDej of ffirst 2Ltnes 
 
 XLIX. And these who scoffed at Heaven and holy 
 
 things 50 
 
 L. No more these sages in their nightly watch . 51 
 LI. These dauntless souls who, loyal to their 
 
 Lord 51 
 
 LII. Lovers of truth and man no more despair . 52 
 
 LIII. And these who in each soul, howe er defiled . 52 
 LIV. No more with patient toil these scholars 
 
 trace 52 
 
 LV. And these rapt lovers of the Heart of Things . 53 
 LVI. These others who, though lowly, still were 
 
 true 54 
 
 LVI I. Ah, not in slothful ease shall we recline . 55 
 LVIII. It may be God has some far-reaching plan . 56 
 LIX. What forms now dimly seen, what sym 
 phonies ....... 58 
 
 LX. Dewdrops twinkling in the sun . -59 
 
 LXI. Softly a summer breeze begins to blow . . 60 
 LXII. What raptured chords like floating incense 
 
 rise 61 
 
 LXIII. What joy for us, with evil once oppressed . 62 
 
 LXIV. These come in haste, as flies the eager dove . 62 
 LXV. These grope in darkness with dull, blinded 
 
 eyes ........ 62 
 
 LXVI. These, footsore and with travel worn, retrace . 63 
 
 LXVII. Behold this vast, innumerable host . . 64 
 LXVIII. Love is the Lord of Life, whose rhythmic 
 
 breath 64 
 
 LXIX. No murky Styx, no poison river pours . . 65 
 
 LXX. No little rivulet is this, confined . . . 66 
 
 LXXL Blest city, fairer than a blissful dream . . 66 
 
 LXXII. And as I think upon that mystic flood . . 67 
 LXXIII. O Christ, have our poor feeble minds con 
 ceived . . . . . . .67 
 
 LXXIV. Have we not read that Thou one day will 
 
 sit 68 
 
182 irnDej of fftrst lines 
 
 STROPHE PAGE 
 
 LXXV. How have these words of fear from age to 
 
 age 68 
 
 LXXVI. When from the language of the Orient . 69 
 LXXVII. How many souls indignant at this tale . 69 
 LXXVIII. Men in their hearts despise this Mighty 
 
 One ....... 69 
 
 LXXIX. How long, how long shall Terror sit 
 
 enthroned ...... 70 
 
 LXXX. Didst Thou not rather say that ere the last . 70 
 LXXXI. Thou Patient One, how must Thou grieve 
 
 to see 72 
 
 LXXXII. O gentle Shepherd, Thou didst tell of one . 72 
 LXXXIII. O Christ, 
 
 If God is Love and Light and if in Him . 74 
 LXXXIV. Thou didst call God our Father, whose 
 
 great heart 74 
 
 LXXXV. Our Father ! When the Son of God went 
 
 forth ....... 74 
 
 LXXXVI. Though man forget from whence he came . 76 
 LXXXVIL How art thou satisfied with husks and 
 
 swine ....... 79 
 
 LXXXVIII. Once did my father s strong and tender 
 
 hand 80 
 
 LXXXIX. But we have read of that dread sin that no . 80 
 XC. Have thou no part nor lot in such a 
 
 thought 81 
 
 XCI. What phrase is this that holds us thus 
 
 enthralled 82 
 
 XCII. How have we stumbled at these fearful 
 
 words ....... 82 
 
 XCIII. Nay, Thou didst utter hot, indignant 
 
 words ....... 83 
 
 XCIV. How fierce the righteous wrath of love ! 
 
 Behold 84 
 
 XCV. No sterner, fiercer words, O Christ, e er 
 
 fell 84 
 
of tfirst 3Lines 183 
 
 STROPHE PAGE 
 
 XCVI. Though men blaspheme the God who speaks 
 
 to them . , . . . .85 
 
 XCVI I. The man who conscience stifles, who calls 
 
 right 85 
 
 XCVIII. O Christ, defend us all in this our day . . 86 
 XCIX. Thou art Incarnate Love, and when that 
 
 Love 87 
 
 C. To every cold or troubled heart . . .87 
 
 CI. Didst Thou not also say : I am the Door " ? . 88 
 CII. But canst Thou draw men thus ? How slow 
 
 our hearts .,,,.. 90 
 
 CHI. I did not ask for life. By God s decree . 90 
 CIV. Alas, 
 
 Sin may deceive and we afar may stray . 92 
 CV. Would God our Father wake us from our 
 
 sleep ....... 92 
 
 CVI. Would God our Father scatter living souls . 93 
 
 CVII. Whither upon this strange and changeful sea . 94 
 
 CVIII. If any single soul shall drift in woe . . 95 
 
 CIX. Ah, never sank a sinning soul so low . . 95 
 
 CX. Oft have I heard, upon the night-wind borne . 96 
 
 CXI. If man can tame the fierce and ruthless beast . 97 
 
 CXII. If man can find a way to reach the dark . 98 
 
 CXIII. If when the tree is withered, parched, and 
 
 dead 98 
 
 CXIV. O Thou whose name is Love, dost Thou not 
 
 long ....... 98 
 
 CXV. O Thou that from eternity .... 99 
 
 CXVL Why should we doubt Thy power? Shall 
 
 the unseen ...... TOO 
 
 CXVII. Shall the majestic sun that rules the heavens . 100 
 
 CXVIII. But must we ever follow, never lead ? . . 102 
 
 CXIX. Spirit of freedom, thou dost love the sea . 102 
 
 CXX. Thou dost delight in every mountain-side . 103^ 
 
 CXXI. Whence hast thou thy courage, brown 
 
 thrush, brown thrush ? 103 
 
UnDej of fftrst JLinee 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CXXII. Author and God of freedom, Thou dost 
 
 plant 105 
 
 CXXIII. By love of freedom led . . . . 106 
 
 CXXIV. Be not too sure no 
 
 CXXV. Or dazzled by the wild extravagance . in 
 
 CXXVI. For despots on their thrones . . .112 
 
 CXXVII. Or swarming Asian hordes ..... 113 
 
 CXXVIII. In the titanic struggle yet to be . . 114 
 
 CXXIX. O sacred Freedom, man has loved thee 
 
 long . 114 
 
 CXXX. What means this murmuring sound that 
 
 fills the air . . . . . . 116 
 
 CXXXI. Ye winds of heaven, your wings are faint, 118 
 CXXXII. A dreamer heard a warning voice declare, 119 
 CXXXIII. Hear the Creator to His children say . 125 
 CXXXIV, Lov st thou the voice of ocean s breaking 
 
 wave ....... 128 
 
 CXXXV. Our hearts cry out for freedom, we 
 
 would be . . . . .129 
 
 CXXXVI. What then is freedom s limit, where its 
 
 end . . . . . . .129 
 
 CXXXVII. Above the clouds the soaring eagle mounts, 130 
 CXXXVIII. We who for boundless freedom strive are 
 
 chained . . . . . 1 30 
 
 CXXXIX. Wild storms across the ocean rage un 
 curbed ...... 131 
 
 CXL. In spite of all the ills of life . . .131 
 CXLI. From the vexed shore I watched the 
 
 storming main . . . . .132 
 
 CXLII. No petty bounds has God around us 
 
 drawn . . . . . .133 
 
 CXLIII. I stood beneath the blazing dome of 
 
 night ....... 133 
 
 CXLIV. Free through our Father s kingdom shall 
 
 we roam . . . . . . 134 
 
of jfirst Xtnes 185 
 
 CXLV. Think not that love is feeble or supine . 135 
 
 CXL VI. Lofty the patriot s love of Fatherland . 136 
 CXLVH. Strong are the bonds of friendship firm and 
 
 tried 136 
 
 CXLVI1I. Royal the lover of his fellow-men . . 136 
 
 CXLIX. Ah, love and love alone at last will solve . 137 
 
 CL. Tender affections at the hearthstone dwell, 138 
 CLI. Stronger than death, or life, or death in 
 
 life 138 
 
 CLII. The babe forlorn and motherless . . 139 
 
 CLIII. Such noble gleams of love our life adorn . 140 
 
 CLIV. Ah, Lord, I fain would sing Thy praise . 141 
 
 CLV. Do well thy part 142 
 
 CLVI. But are not mind and matter under law ? . 143 
 
 CLVII. He rules by law, His law is over all . . 143 
 
 CLVIII. Well I recall the night .... 143 
 
 CLIX. The cyclone and tornado that we fear . 145 
 
 CLX. God rules by law, but law can never bind . 146 
 
 CLXI, He whose slow movements look to our dull 
 
 eyes 147 
 
 CLXII. He who created heavenly orbs to roll . 147 
 
 CLXIII. He who each atom guards so jealously . 147 
 
 CLXIV. T is but a spectral phantom of the night . 148 
 
 CLX V. We may be fellow-laborers with God . 148 
 
 CLXVI. God is a Spirit ; they that worship Him . 149 
 
 CLXVII. Of Him and to and through Him all things 
 
 are . . . . . . .150 
 
 CLXVIII. T is but His hand that doth encompass 
 
 us 151 
 
 CLXIX. O Love Supreme, wilt Thou not speak . 152 
 
 CLXX. Rend Thou the heavens and hasten down . 152 
 
 CLXXI. He for us men, to share our toil and pain . 153 
 
 CLXXIL How strong art Thou, great Son of God . 154 
 
 CLXXIII. O Desire of every nation ... . . 155 
 
 CLXXIV. Is it a mighty, rushing wind . . .156 
 
 CLXXV. And then upon my ear there fell a voice . 157 
 
186 
 
 of jfirst Hfnes 
 
 STROPHE 
 
 CLXXVI. Crucified in sharne and anguish 
 
 dear 
 
 CLXXIX. And then a sound of triumph I could 
 hear . . . . . . I- 
 
 CLXXX. Slain by the Son of God All-glorious 
 
 157 
 
 CLXXVII. Like organ tones that, with majestic roll . 174 
 CLXXV1II. Lord of my waiting soul, Thou Saviour 
 
 175 
 
 175 
 176 
 
1 
 
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 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 
 on the date to which renewed. 
 Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 
 
 l7Jan 56BI 
 
 
 JAN 3 1956 LU 
 
 
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