Classic Poem

Was it only in Judea,
Eighteen hundred years ago,
That the lord of earth and heaven
Came to visit men below?

True, he came then in a manhood
That was blessed, sweet, and strong,
Teaching broader views of goodness
And a deeper scorn of wrong.

But to say that once and only
Came he, and in magic wise,
Is to slight th' eternal advent ,
Never hid from holy eyes.

Not alone in that one cradle
In the far-off Nazareth!
God speaks straight to every mother
Through the baby's lisping breath.

Calling one birth only sinless
Casts on motherhood a scorn:
Holy are the thousand chambers
Where the infant " Christs " are born.

Not alone in one grand era
Does the " Blessed One " come near:
From the first day till the last one,
He is coming every year.

In the " mystery of matter, "
Through the ages long at strife,
God was in what men call lifeless,
Struggling upward into life.

Up the dateless ages lifting,
From the lowest crawling worm
On through reptile, fish, and mammal,
Blossomed he from form to form.

Till at length out through the brutal,
Like a sunrise through a cloud,
Waking, wondering, gleamed the human ,
And a voice spoke up aloud.

God came then in wondrous fashion,
When his great man-child had birth,
When, erect, he faced the heavens,
And stood conscious on the earth.

Every age since then was Advent.
Came he all the aeons through,
As man learned the art of thinking ,
And achieved the power to do .

Yes, he came through hidden pathways,
As the life comes in the spring, —
Underground in silent working
Till the time for blossoming.

When man tamed the stubborn iron,
And to flexile uses wrought;
And phonetic signs invented
To become the wings of thought, —

Then in truth God came and whispered,
" Be thou free and mighty now!
Rule the earth with iron sceptre,
All its powers to thee shall bow!

" Armed with letters, go thou forward:
To all doors, thou hast the key;
Naught on earth and naught in heaven
But shall open unto thee! "

Thus, God cometh up the ages, —
Hear on battle-fields his call!
At the sound, old systems tremble,
Brain-bonds snap, and shackles fall.

Through the rising of the peoples,
By the ships whose hearts are fires,
On the trains through tunnelled mountains,
By the lightning-throbbing wires,

Through the patient toil of science,
Through the fairy grace of art,
Through the broader range of thinking,
Through new tenderness of heart,

Evermore is godhood coming, —
Godhood robed in human guise,
Hidden from the backward looking,
But revealed unto the wise.

No more then on human nature,
No more on God's glad, green earth,
Dare to cast contempt! Remember
Here God's kingdom has its birth.

Look not to the distant heavens,
Nor to east nor west; for, lo!
God is 'neath thy feet, and cometh,
Like all fair growths, from below.

In the beating of thy pulses,
In the throbbing of thy brain,
In the air and sunshine round thee,
See, he comes, and comes again!

In the grand ideal that leads thee,
In fair hopes that gleam and flee,
In the ever-sought to-morrow,
Forward still he beckons thee!

When disease and want and sorrow
Are beneath thy gladsome feet,
When are broken all earth's shackles,
When as one all nations meet,

When the wide earth is a garden,
When love driveth out all hate,
When earth's once terrific forces
Like trained servants on thee wait, —

Then the God who through the ages
Did thy toilsome progress lead,
He who was and is and shall be,
Will have come in very deed!