How fall the idols false and grim!
And to! their hideous wreck above
The emblems of the Lamb and Dove!
Man turns from God, not God from him;
And guilt, in suffering, whispers Love!
The world sits at the feet of Christ,
Unknowing, blind, and unconsoled;
It yet shall touch His garment's fold,
And feel the heavenly Alchemist
Transform its very dust to gold.
The theme befitting angel tongues
Beyond a mortal's scope has grown.
O heart of mine! with reverence own
The fulness which to it belongs,
And trust the unknown for the known.
1859.
THE SHADOW AND THE LIGHT.
"And I sought, whence is Evil: I set before the eye of my spirit
the whole creation; whatsoever we see therein,--sea, earth, air,
stars, trees, moral creatures,--yea, whatsoever there is we do not
see,--angels and spiritual powers. Where is evil, and whence comes
it, since God the Good hath created all things? Why made He
anything at all of evil, and not rather by His Almightiness cause
it not to be? These thoughts I turned in my miserable heart,
overcharged with most gnawing cares." "And, admonished to return to
myself, I entered even into my inmost soul, Thou being my guide,
and beheld even beyond my soul and mind the Light unchangeable. He
who knows the Truth knows what that Light is, and he that knows it
knows Eternity! O--Truth, who art Eternity! Love, who art Truth!
Eternity, who art Love! And I beheld that Thou madest all things
good, and to Thee is nothing whatsoever evil.
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