FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163  
164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   >>   >|  
the altar and all its ceremonies, must vanish from between the sinner and his God. When the priest forgets his mediation of a servant, his duty of a door-keeper to the temple of truth, and takes upon him the office of an intercessor, he stands between man and God, and is a Satan, an adversary. Artistically considered, the poem could hardly be improved. Here is another containing a similar lesson. _I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof._ Thy God was making haste into thy roof; Thy humble faith and fear keeps him aloof. He'll be thy guest: because he may not be, He'll come--into thy house? No; into thee. The following is a world-wide intercession for them that know not what they do. Of those that reject the truth, who can be said ever to have _truly_ seen it? A man must be good to see truth. It is a thought suggested by our Lord's words, not an irreverent opposition to the truth of _them_. _But now they have seen and hated._ _Seen?_ and yet _hated thee?_ They did not see-- They saw thee not, that saw and hated thee! No, no; they saw thee not, O Life! O Love! Who saw aught in thee that their hate could move. We must not be too ready to quarrel with every oddity: an oddity will sometimes just give the start to an outbreak of song. The strangeness of the following hymn rises almost into grandeur. EASTER DAY. Rise, heir of fresh eternity, From thy virgin-tomb; Rise, mighty man of wonders, and thy world with thee; Thy tomb, the universal East-- Nature's new womb; Thy tomb--fair Immortality's perfumed nest. Of all the glories[139] make noon gay This is the morn; This rock buds forth the fountain of the streams of day; In joy's white annals lives this hour, When life was born, No cloud-scowl on his radiant lids, no tempest-lower. Life, by this light's nativity, All creatures have; Death only by this day's just doom is forced to die. Nor is death forced; for, may he lie Throned in thy grave, Death will on this condition be content to die. When we come, in the writings of one who has revealed masterdom, upon any passage that seems commonplace, or any figure that suggests nothing true, the part of wisdom is to brood over that point; for the probability is that the barrenness lies in us, two factors being necessary for the result of sight--the thing to be seen and the eye to see it
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163  
164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
forced
 

oddity

 

annals

 

tempest

 

fountain

 
streams
 
radiant
 

vanish

 
Nature
 

universal


wonders

 

virgin

 
priest
 

mighty

 
Immortality
 

sinner

 
perfumed
 
glories
 

wisdom

 

figure


suggests

 

probability

 

barrenness

 

result

 

factors

 

commonplace

 

Throned

 

eternity

 

creatures

 

ceremonies


condition

 
revealed
 

masterdom

 

passage

 

content

 
writings
 

nativity

 
forgets
 

reject

 
improved

thought
 

adversary

 
considered
 
Artistically
 

intercession

 

humble

 
shouldst
 

making

 
worthy
 

lesson