Wisdom by sweet and bitter made more wise.
From blight springs blessing, and from darkness day; 840
E'en Canaan's neck from 'neath the yoke[25] shall come.
Japheth shall feel the Spirit minister,
And Jacob see and hear his risen Lord[26].
Departed now the Woman Wonderful,
Gone with the spirit gift and guiding power;
O'ercome, world-conquered, sinks degenerate
The washed one to his wallowing in the mire[27];
A drowsy dreamer of the self-same dreams
Dispelled erewhile by lightnings of her eye;
The heaven-lit torch[28] that made the pathway plain 850
O'er rugged mount, through mazy catacomb,
Now dimmed with incense from Diana's shrine[29],
And dashed in pieces 'gainst a pagan throne,
Where prematurely changed was cross for crown,
And Christ's flock fleeced by shearing compromise[30].
God still with man, though not with man's misrule;
Still with the just, though Christian-pagan turn
His prurient ear to fables, from the truth,
And, virtueless as Judah's pharisee,
And graceless as Iscariot, self-hung, 860
Parts in the midst, as wide as East from West[31],
False church and faithless empire, faction-torn,
Twain as the imaged legs of Babel's dream,
A split colossus, fallen 'twixt Greece and Rome.
God still with man, though not with man's misrule,
Never with thee, daughter of force and fraud,
Mother of guile—thy refuge and thy shame!
Never with thee, thou wanton by the way,
Roaming tradition's tangled wilderness,
Lost in a night that seemeth to thee day; 870
In crooked paths that fain would straight appear;
Warming thy withered fingers o'er the coals
Alive 'mid ashes of the ancient fires,
Where She was wont[32] to kindle faith, hope, love,
And flash the beacon o'er a wandering world.
There holding to thy heart an empty urn,
There cherishing a name, a memory,
Mumbling vain prayers, "Lord, Lord," protesting still,
And still forgetful of thy Lord's command!
Nay, not with thee, thou crimson courtesan[33], 880
Robed in the horrid hue of countless crimes!
Fierce dragon's maw, thrice-cruel murderess,
Thy hands a-reek with blood of innocence,
With blood of prophets, blood of priests and kings,
Whose martyred souls sue vengeance, judgment-sworn!
Vengeance on thee, thou slaughterer of saints,
Vengeance on him, thy sceptered paramour,
Whose princes ten (while Mammon's host shall wail),
Loathing where once they loved all lustfully,
And lived, as thou hast lived, deliciously, 890
When found no more God's wheat 'mid Satan's tares,
When thou art saltless, saintless, savorless,
When thou art ripened unto rottenness,
Shall give thy crumbling body to be burned.
Nay, Anti-Christ, presuming tyranny,
Never with thee, usurping power of sin!
Plotting to sway Jehovah's sovereignty,
To rear thy throne where His alone shall stand;
Perdition, warring 'gainst the Saints of God,
And overcoming till the Judgment sits[34], 900
When swift-winged morn shall overtake the night,
And glory lift the gloom[35] of centuries.
Meanwhile the mission of the Moonlike One[36],
Brooding above the waters of the world,
Stronger than storms, mightier than wind or wave,
Moving on mortal seas, on human souls;
Dynamic impulse of Divinity,
Impelling to all action[37] wise, sublime.
That high Ambassador of Elohim,
The Spirit Messenger Omnipotent, 910
Declare His goings-forth, His sendings tell.
Ye patriarchs and prophets of old time!
Ye seers and bards of sacred Israel!
Elect of God, earth-wandering witnesses,
Sowers on goodly and on stony ground!
Souls mercy-sent, man's erring steps to win
From folly's paths of wickedness and strife,
To wisdom's way of purity and peace!
Shepherds to fold and feed a wolf-torn flock,
Holding the hallowed keys that loose and bind! 920
Tell me—are ye alone truth's harbingers?
Are ye alone forerunners of the Light?
Nay, for as kings and conquerors they come;
Anon, as champions of democracy;
Founders of faiths and stern iconoclasts;
Sword, tongue and pen of progress and reform.
The fountain lights of literature, whose rays
Spill their white splendor on the hills of fame;
Masters of melody, whose strains awake
The slumbering memories of eternity; 930
Pilgrims to continents and climes unknown,
Uncurtained for the play of liberty,
Now nearing the finale of her dreams,
Dreams that shall waken to reality;
Waste-winners; probers of the polar way;
Invention's wizards, wielding magic might—
Launching fleet words on atmospheric wave,
Cleaving with bird-like wing the shoreless blue,
Outspeeding speed, outblazing brilliancy,
Thrilling the world with lightning's vivid wand, 940
Ruling all realms with scintillating sway;
Sages in art, in science past profound,
Subduing matter and exploring mind,
Sounding the depths of psychic mystery,
Scaling thought's pinnacles, that pierce the night,
To greet the early glintings of the morn.
These also are the mighty, kin to those,
Divinest of Jehovah's messengers.
Each hath his freedom, and succeeds or fails,
But all subserve the Will Omnipotent. 950
What though some wayward son of Deity[38],
Builder,