"Through this dark and stormy night Faith beholds a feeble light Up the blackness streaking; Knowing God's own time is best, In a patient hope I rest For the full day-breaking!" So the Laird of Ury said, Turning slow his horse's head Towards the Tolbooth prison, Where, through iron grates, he heard Preach of Christ arisen! Not in vain, Confessor old, Of thy day of trial; Happy he whose inward ear O'er the rabble's laughter; And, while Hatred's fagots burn, Knowing this, that never yet In the world's wide fallow; Thus, with somewhat of the Seer, Must the moral pioneer From the Future borrow; Clothe the waste with dreams of grain, And, on midnight's sky of rain, Paint the golden morrow! WHAT THE VOICE SAID. Maddened by Earth's wrong and evil, "Lord!" I cried in sudden ire, "From thy right hand, clothed with thunder, Shake the bolted fire! "Love is lost, and Faith is dying; And the dropping blood of labor "Here the dying wail of Famine, And, in silence, smooth-faced Mammon "Where is God, that we should fear Him?' Thus the earth-born Titans say; 'God! if thou art living, hear us!' Thus the weak ones pray. "Thou, the patient Heaven upbraiding," Spake a solemn Voice within; "Weary of our Lord's forbearance, Art thou free from sin ? "Fearless brow to Him uplifting, Canst thou for His thunders call, Knowing that to guilt's attraction Evermore they fall? "Know'st thou not all germs of evil "Could'st thou boast, oh child of weakness! "Thou hast seen two streamlets gushing "Glideth one through greenest valleys, "Is it choice whereby the Parsee Kneels before his mother's fire? In his black tent did the Tartar Choose his wandering sire? "He alone, whose hand is bounding "For thyself, while wrong and sorrow Make to thee their strong appeal, Coward wert thou not to utter What the heart must feel. "Earnest words must needs be spoken When the warm heart bleeds or burns With its scorn of wrong, or pity For the wronged, by turns. "But, by all thy nature's weakness, Hidden faults and follies known, Be thou, in rebuking evil, Conscious of thine own. "Not the less shall stern-eyed Duty Cease not, Voice of holy speaking, Teacher sent of God, be near, Whispering through the day's cool silence, Let my spirit hear! So, when thoughts of evil doers Shall a mournful fellow-feeling TO DELAWARE. WRITTEN during the discussion in the Legislature of that State in the winter of 1846-7, of a bill for the abolition of Slavery. Thrice welcome to thy sisters of the East, To the warm welcome of thy sisters come! Shall give thee joy, and Jersey from her plains, Moaned never shoreward with the clank of chains, Shall tremble northward with its words of fire: |