» ૐ ૐ For death is merely absent life, as darkness absent light; Not even a suspension, for the life hath sailed away, steering gladly somewhere, And corruption, closely noted, is but a dissolving of the parts; The parts remain, and nothing lost, to build a better whole. Thou canst not entertain two coincident ideas, although they And Unity hath no parts, so that there is nothing to dissolve; He that gave me being ? Amen, if God so will; I know that will is love: But love hath promised life, and therefore I shall live; So long as He is God, I shall be his Creature! AND here, shrewd reasoner, so eager to prove that thou must perish, Thy fancies tend to prove too much, and overshoot the mark: If I die not with brutes, then brutes must live with me? I dare not tell thee that they will, for the word is not in my com- But of the twain it is the likelier; continuance is the chance: Who told thee they die at dissolution? boldly think it out, - Is Infinity too narrow, Omnipotence too weak, and Love so anxious Doth Wisdom change its plan, and a Maker cancel his created? pleasure: Yet are there many thoughts of hope, that all which are shall live. habit; They lay them down without a fear, and wake without a hope: Hunger and pain is of the animal; but when did they reckon or compare? They live, idealess, in instinct; and while they breathe they gain : Therefore, caviller, my poor thoughts dare not grant they live: Would it be much if a speck on space, this globe with all its mil lions, Verily, after its pollution, were suffered to exist in purity? Or much, if guiltless creatures, that were cruelly entreated upon earth, Found some commensurate reward in lower joys hereafter? Or much, if a Creator, prodigal of life, and filled with the profundity of love, Rejoice in all creatures of his skill, and lead them to perfection in their kind? O man, there are many marvels; yet life is more a mystery than death; For death may be some stagnant life, but life is present God! MANY are the lurking-holes of evil; who shall search them out? Shall turn and find them vital still, unharmed, yea, unashamed: Once and again, once and again, hath Reason answered wisely; Too long, O truant from the fold, have I tracked thy devious paths: Haply, the fervor of my speech, and too patient sifting of thy fancies, Shall tend to make thee prize them more, as worthier and wiser : Go to be mine the gain: we measure swords no more; Go, and a word go with thee,-Man, thou ART Immortal! CHILD of light, and student in the truth, too long have I forgotten thee: Lo, after parley with an alien, let me hold sweet converse with a brother. Glorious hopes, and ineffable imaginings, crowd our holy theme; Fear hath been slaughtered on the portal, and Doubt driven back to darkness: For Christ hath died, and we in Him: by faith His all is ours,Cross, and crown, and love, and life; and we shall reign in him! Yea, there is a fitness and a beauty in ascribing immortality to mind, That its energies and lofty aspirations may have scope for indefinite expansion. To learn all things is privilege of reason, and that with a growing capability, But in this age of toil and time we scarce attain to alphabets: life, Shall a man turn and stop to consider mighty secrets! With barely hours, and barely powers, to fill up daily duties, How small the glimpse of knowledge his wandering eye can catch! And knowledge is a noting of the order wherein God's attributes evolve, Therefore worthy of the creature, worthy of an angel's seeking; Hath its roots, both deep and strong; but the plants are exotic to the climate; All we seem to know demand a longer learning, History, and science, and prophecy, and art, are workings all of God: And there are galaxies of globes, millions of unimagined beings, NOT in vain, O brother, hath soul the spurs of enterprise, Nor aimlessly panteth for adventure, waiting at the cave of mystery; Not in vain the cup of curiosity, sweet and richly spiced, Is ruby to the sight, and ambrosia to the taste, and redolent with all fragrance: Thou shalt drink, and deeply, filling the mind with marvels; COUNT, count your hopes, heirs of immortality and love; For lo, my trust is strong to dwell in many worlds, And cull of many brethren there sweet knowledge ever new: I yearn for realms where fancy shall be filled, and the ecstasies of freedom shall be felt, And the soul reign gloriously, risen to its royal destinies : I look to recognize again, through the beautiful mask of their perfection, The dear, familiar faces I have somewhile loved on earth: I long to talk with grateful tongue of storms and perils past, And praise the mighty Pilot that hath steered us through the rapids: He shall be the focus of it all, the very heart of gladness. My soul is athirst for God, the God who dwelt in Man! Prophet, priest, and king, the sacrifice, the substitute, the Savior, Rapture of the blessed in the hunted one of earth, the pardoner in the victim: How many centuries of joy concentrate in that theme! How often a Methusalem might count his thousand years, and leave it unexhausted! And lo, the heavenly Jerusalem, with all its gates one pearl, Hark, they sing that song, and cast their crowns before Him; tality! Veil thine eyes: no son of time may see that holy vision, And even the seraph at thy side hath covered his face with wings. DOTH he not speak parables?—each one goeth on his way, We know but heed them not, and walk as if the temporal were all things. Vanities, buzzing on the ear, fill its drowsy chambers, Slow to dread those coming fears, the thunder and the trumpet; Motes, streaming on the sight, dim our purblind eyes, Dark to see the ponderous orb of nearing Immortality: Hemmed in by hostile foes, the trifler is busied on an epigram; (47) doth he not speak parables? Look to thy soul, O man, for none can be surety for his brother; Behold, for heaven —or for hell, — thou canst not escape from Immortality! OF IDEAS. MIND is like a volatile essence, flitting hither and thither, A solitary sentinel of the fortress body, to show himself every where by turns: Mind is indivisible and instant, with neither parts nor organs; That it doeth, it doth quickly, but the whole mind doth it: brain; His dwelling may verily be shattered, and the furniture thereof be disarranged, |