Classic Poem

A WAKE to effort while the day is shining;
The time to labor will not always last,
And no regret, repentance, or repining,
Can bring to us again the buried past.
The silent sands of life are falling fast;
Time tells our busy pulses, one ny one;
And shall our work, so needful and so vast,
Be all completed, or but just begun,
When twilight shadows veil life's dim departing sun?

What duties have our idle hands neglected?
What useful lessons have we learned and taught?
What warmth, what radiance, have our hearts reflected?
What rich and rare materials have we brought
For deep investigation, earnest thought?
Concealed within the soul's unfathomed mine,
How many a sparkling gem remains unwrought,
That industry might place on learning's shrine,
Or lavish on the world, to further God's design!

To effort! ye whom God has nobly gifted
With that prevailing power, undying song,
For human good let every pen be lifted,
For human good let every heart be strong.
Is there no crying sin, no grievous wrong
That ye may help to weaken or repress?
In wayside hut and hovel, midst the throng
Down-trodden by privation and distress?
Is there no stricken heart that ye can cheer and bless?

Sing idle lays to idle harps no longer;
Go! peal an anthem at the gate of heaven;
Exertion makes the fainting spirit stronger.
Sing, till the bonds of igorance are riven,
Till dark oppression from the earth is driven;
Sing, till from every land and every sea
One universal triumph-song is given,
To hail the long-expected jubilee,
When every bond is broke and every vassal free.

And ye, whose birthright is the glorious dower
Of eloquence to thrill the immortal soul,
Use not unwisely the transcendant power
To waken, guide, restrain, direct, control
The heart's deep, deep emotions; let the goal
Of your ambition be a name enshrined,
By love and gratitude, within the scroll
Where generations yet unborn shall find
The deathless deeds of those who loved and blessed mankind.

Go! use the mighty energies that slumber
Unknown, unnumbered in the world's great heart;
Remove the stubborn errors that encumber
The fields of science, literature and art;
Rend superstitions darkening veil apart,
And hurl to earth blind bigotry, the ban
From which a thousand grievous evils start
To thwart and mar the great Creator's plan,
And break the ties that bind the brotherhood of man.

And ye who sit aloft in earth's high places,
Perchance amid your wealth you scarcely know
That want and woe are leaving fearful traces
Upon the toiling multitude below.
From your abundance can ye not bestow
A mite to smooth the thorny paths they tread?
Have ye no sympathy with human woe?
No ray of blessed hope and joy to shed
Upon the weary hearts that pine and toil for bread?

Amid the gorgeous splendor that bedizens
Your palaces, no longer idly stand,
While dens of wickedness and loathsome prisons
Arise, like blighting plague-spots o'er the land;
Go! speak a word and lend a helping hand
To rescue men from degradation's thrall,
Nor deem a just and righteous God hath banned
The toiling millions, while the rain-drops fall,
And blessed sunbeams shine alike from heaven for all.

The smallest bark on life's tempestuous ocean
Will leave a track behind forevermore;
The lightest wave of influence set in motion
Extends and widens to the eternal shore.
We should be wary, then, who go before
A myriad yet to be, and we should take
Our bearing carefully, where breakers roar,
And fearful tempests gather; one mistake
May wreck unnumbered barks that follow in our wake.