Classic Poem

I

While disputants for victory fight,
And hope to fill the world with light,
Enkindled from Truth's piercing ray,
She, prudent Virgin, steals away,
Swift hastens off with shrowded lamp,
And dark'ling leaves the noisy camp.
Eftsoon she gains a silent dell
Where Peace and Meditation dwell,
Where no rude gales contending blow,
But fires of deep Devotion glow,
There feeds and fans her sacred flame,
Still growing, yet for aye the same.

II

Water can but rise to its own level

Think not by laboured proof or plea profound
Vain minds to free from superstitions vain,
Or snap one link of Error's unfelt chain,
Which Time aye winds the careless spirit around:
If cheated into Faith by shew of Reason,
And Sophistry's assumptions broad and bold,
From Thought they had received the creed they hold
With unrelaxing grasp, at some fit season,
Thought's sovereign might find access to their mind,
Fair Truth, by Candour led, with open face,
And listening to her voice, thro' Heaven's high grace,
By Thought they might those subtle bands unbind;
Might learn how Falsehood coins her counters base,
And change them for pure metal twice refined.

III

Reason

That ancient hero, Theseus hight,
Had he disdained the proffered aid
Of Ariadne, gracious Maid,
Whose star hath since illumed the night,
For all his wondrous hardihood,
And all his matchless skill at arms,
Had never freed from dire alarms
Fair Athens, and her Foe subdued;
Nor saved her youthful children from their fate,
But perished in those windings intricate.
We too a labyrinth have to tread,
Where uncouth monstrous forms abide,
And we too have as sure a Guide
As that by which his steps were led:
Our Ariadne, kind and true,
Than she of old more brightly fair —
Reason — doth our escape prepare,
And places in our hands a clue:
Her armour guards us in all dang'rous frays,
Her lamp around us sheds its piercing rays,
Whilst on we fare thru' Error's shadowy maze.
IV


Mystic Doctrine of Baptism

We read of a mad enterprise
In Holy Writ,
Of men who sought to gain the skies
By their own wit:
How God's abode they strove to reach
By Him untaught,
Till strange confusion on their speech
Th' Almighty brought;
And how that structure, impotent and vain,
Was left for aye unfinished on the plain.
Thus false Theology her tow'r
Of Babel rears,
To last, by human skill and pow'r,
For endless years;
And shews a way to Heav'n above
Of her own framing;
But He, the Lord of Light and Love,
Her work disclaiming,
Reveals it for a fabric of delusion,
In darkness founded, ending in confusion.
Smit by His beams the mazy pile
Dissolves in air:
But lo! Beneath Heav'n's radiant smile
A structure fair! —
Deep in the heart of man was cast
Its broad foundation
More glorious each day than the last
It keeps its station: —
This is the gradual stair sublime
The golden stair to heaven,
By Truth and Mercy given,
Knowledge, Faith, Hope and Love, by which to God we climb!

V

Baptism

If ye were raised with Christ, go seek your treasure
Where He abides, and quit this Earth's dull prison;
Leave the vile body of low sensuous pleasure
Fixed on the cross, and be in spirit arisen.

If light from heaven have beamed upon your way,
Walk in those beams beneath the broad blue dome:
Shun Earth's false fires that shine but to betray,
Nor dare thro' Error's darksome tracts to roam.

Quickened with Christ in that life-giving stream,
His life to live be aye your soul's endeavour:
Think this world's pageant but a passing dream,
Nor slumber here but watch to wake for ever.