Man : the earth and God and verses for the times

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Man, the earth and God and
verses for the times.

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Verses Tor tDe Ciittes.

BY

PERCY RUSSElala

London :

ARTHUR H. STOCKWKLL,

29, Ludgate Hill, K.C. 4.

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Verses for the times.

BY

Author of " The Indictment of the Kaiser,"
'•After This Life," "Christine," etc.

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'Tis through poetry—we know it-
Things divine to life are brought,

Messenger of God, the poet,
Shows the majesty of thought.

Poetry is the refiner,
Lifting man and woman high,

Bringing them a life diviner,
And the soul that cannot die.

Poetry in youth implanted,

Can enoble every one.
Bringing them to realms enchant-

Lit by an unsetting sun. [ed

Poetry, if men would heed it,

As to death the way is trod,
Shows the life that will succeed it,

And reveals the love of God.

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London :
ARTHUR H. STOCKWELL.
29, LuDGATE Hill, E.C. 4.

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THESE VERSES

ARE

INSCRIBED TO MY BELOVED WIFE

A woman, gentle, good and pure,
With all the virtues that endure,
Her path in Life through Love she trod,
And she shall see the Face of God;
No Judge for her, the Father He
To whom she daily bent the knee.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Man, the Earth, and God ... ... 5

Music .„ ... ... ... 10

England's Talents ... ... ... 11

The Two Lives ... ... ... ^2

Love in Two Phases... ... ... 13

Common Things ... ... ... 14

The Miracle of Space ... ... 15

Science and Warfare ... ... 1()

Conscription ... ... ... 1()

Blocking the Way ... ... ... 17

Empire or God ? ... ... ... 17

Thy Kingdom Come... ... ... 1<S

Pax Britannica ... ... ... IS

Armenia ... ... ... ... 19

Individual and National Christianity ... 19

The Twentieth Century ... ... 20

A Crown without a Cross ... ... 21

The New Ocean ... ... ' ... 21

The Red Ensign ... ... ... 22

A Study in Womanhood ... ... 23

England's Glory ... ... ... 24

Let there be Light ... ... ... 2.5

On the Recognition of Buddhism as a

State Religion ... ... ... 25

The Progress of England ... ... 26

The Wife and the Bride 28

MAN, THE EARTH AND GOD.

Formed from the dust, his flesh from earth
In tissues finely spun,
Its noblest in inherent worth,
The cherished of the sun.
The earth the life of man sustains
While here he draws his breath ;
The place of all his joys and pains,
Receiving him at death.
Earth's iron flows amid his blood,
She gives him vital lieat ;
*Does not the sea in ebb and flow
Through all his pulses beat ?
For is not man at one with earth,
While Nature claims him hers ;
With all her forces from his birth ,

To him she ministers ?
The melody of many a bird,
The music of the wind —
By these the human heart is stirred,
These form the human mind.
For all external Nature must
In much man's nature frame,
That he may glorify the dust
From which at first he came.
For centuries on centuries
The earth has been man's toy, '.

Subject to all he could devise
To torture and destroy,
Earth's tenant for some fleeting years.
What havoc mankind makes,
While angels watch, unseen in tears,
The things man mars and breaks.

*See '• The Pliilosopliy of Life," by Frederic von Schlegel, section The
Affinity of Man to the Earth.

MAN, THE EARTH AND GOD.

He tortures Nature for his sport,

And from her bosom rends

The hfe within her, for a short

Enjoyment of his ends,

All lower creatures are his prey,

And cruel oft is he —

Consuming thousands for his play

And sensuality.

Placed on this earth to keep it fair

As from God's hand it came,

The annals of man's works declare

How much of guilt and shame.

It was not meant that man should blind

His spiritual eyes

In things material, still to find

His chiefest exercise.

A flying man — his latest guise —

His newest toys are wings —

Surpassed by every bird that flies —

What profit in such things ?

Man's jiroper sphere is thought alone

That gives him wings to rise.

That he may reach God's holy throne

And conquer Paradise I

If angels view the ways of men,

How well they might suppose

Tiiey never hoped to live again

When here tlieir lives they close.

Earth's tenant for a fleeting life,

Man wrecks his dwelling-place,

And loads himself with pain and strife,

God's image to efface.

And some who final leisure win,

That greatest gift of all,

Consume it in some sensual sin

That makes them Satan's thrall.

" From battle, murder, sudden death.

Good Lord deliver us,"

Since man received from God his breath ;

His prayer should still be thus.

Yet this last century seems to find

The dotage of the race,

AND VERSES FOR THE TIMES.

With just for sport sufficient mind
True progress to disgrace.
And Rome in her decUning horn-
Was not more base than we
Who dare to spend our wealth and power,
On things that should not be !
Alas ! that in earth's latest time
Men should apostate grow,
With progress still in vice aud crime*
Towards eternal woe.
If we could only see aright
The longest life is short —
But darkness we mistake for light,
And man is Satan's sport.
If law in God could have its base,
The world would altered be.
And in His service every race
Were then completely tree.
The glory of the intellect,
And all the world can give —
Ah, these are things of no effect
Unless again we live.
The things that we should cultivate
Are purity and love,
The pledge of an enduring state
With God who reigns above.
No eye can see, no mind conceive.
To all the world unknown,
What comes to those who once believe,
When Christ shall claim His own !
The forces that are daily spent
On things we see and feel,
If to the spiritual bent ;
A new world would reveal.
If love had only liberty
To show its nature true,
Embracing men, as earth the sea, '

How soon this earth were new ;
An Eden such as Adam trod,
With heaven's smile above,
Each action service true of God,
And freedom found in love !

8 MAN, THE EARTH AND GOD.

What millions have on earth been born

And laboured to their rest,

Who knew not that this world to scorn

In God would make them blessed !

Alas ! if only from the first

Mankind had been but wise,

They could have made Creation burst

Into a Paradise.

In every child of Adam's race,

Though stained by evil dark,

There is that gift of heavenly grace,

One spiritual spark.

Compared with that our earthly Ufe,

And all that comes from clay,

Though crowned from every mortal strife,

Is as the night to day.

The way to heaven is not found

Through knowing many things,

And haughty Science, robed and crowned.

Has only earthly wings.

The ignorant may oft be more

Acceptable to God,

Than those who to the highest lore

The paths of science trod.

Oh, if we made of earthly life

Ere we begin to fail.

Ere we are blinded by the strife,

A thin, transparent veil,

Through which we always could discera

The endless life to be.

What blessed lessons we should learn,

What lovely visions see !

The triumph of the clay is but

A passing, fleeting show,

Unless God's spark within us shut

Begins ere death to glow.

In flesh and blood we all are born,

Tln-ough sin we all must die ;

The spirit only knows that morn

That is Eternity.

Alas ! that nearly all our powers

Are on the body spent,

AND VERSES FOR THE TIMES.

And if the mind in beauty flowers.

We mostly are content.

Ah, who can tell if all the force

In things we leave behind,

Had turned into a moral course,

How changed were every mind.

Suppose that law to love were turned,

And sympathy had sway.

And that ambition only yearned

For an eternal day.

Oh, who can tell what unguessed power

Within the human soul

Would then in wondrous beauty flower

Escaping death's control ?

The world and all its works would then

A matchless beauty gain,

And death no longer over men

As now, despotic reign.

The twentieth century came and yet

On earth we could not see

Two nations even that had met

In Christian unity :

Alas ! indeed, there is not one

As on the ages glide,

By whom the will of God is done.

Whatever may betide.

And yet I think one nation might

In an unbroken line.

Have spread abroad that glorious light

That is the life divine.

Have saints and martyrs lived in vain.

Whose record is on high ?

Must we to pagans turn again,

As beasts to live and die ?

But day succeeds the darkest hour,

Oh, Christ, the world dethrone —

Come back with an Almighty power

And vindicate Thine own 1

Had man been wise he would have made

The earth one temple grand,

God's glory in his works displayed.

For which the earth was planned.

10 MAN, THE EARTH AND GOD.

Then man himself, a temple too,

In unison with earth,

Would through such worship, pure and true,

Attain the second birth :

Had man but warred on sin as he

Has warred through sin till now,

A crown of immortality

Would rest on every brow !

MUSIC.

Can there be souls that ne'er have sprung,

Responsive to that tender tongue

Which God has given every leaf.

To heighten joy, to solace grief ?

A diapason that includes

Sea, mountains, plains, sky, winds and woods ;

Nature's sweet voices that reveal

The most to those who deepest feel ;

The only tongue by heavenly grace

Made common to the human race.

AND VERSES FOK THE TIMES. n

ENGLAND'S TALENTS.

Can two together walk, unless agreed ?

The Prophet asked of old, when Israel's seed

Turned from the path they once with Moses trod

And gave to idols what they owed to God.

And as with Israel when they ceased to plough

The righteous way, is it with England now.

Survey all History's field and closely scan

What Heaven has meted to progressive man

And answer for what nation 'neath the sun

Has God the most in sequent ages done ?

A thousand years have passed since o'er this isle

Augustine shed the Gospel's tender smile

And raised the Cross, a symbol surely meant

For us to carry to each continent.

Riches and power and Wisdom's sunshine bright

Nursed in this land a Chivalry of Light,

That Englishmen, a Brotherhood of Grace,

Might bear the Cross to every Heathen place.

The seas that join the nations they divide

To England's keeping Heaven did confide

And ships unnumbered in a Holy Trust,

Ten thousand Talents on one Nation thrust.

Imagine England what she might have been

And all the world were then an altered scene

Her conquered rivals, Portugal and Spain,

Not blessed with Light as she, sent o'er the main

Their missionaries in sincere Crusade,

But England followed in the cause of Trade,

Interring Talents given her in trust

Deep under hills of Mammon's golden dust.

Had God been first and Christ the only end,

Had we known how our Talents to expend

Then had the Red Cross of Saint George been flown

Unchallenged and supreme from zone to zone,

While round the world the Gospel Message ran

Of universal Peace and Love to man.

For this was England's strength through ages wrought,

For this was she endowed with glorious Thought,

For this alone did Providence degree

Complete Diminion over every sea.

12 MAN, THE EARTH AND GOD.

And safety by whatever foes assailed,

That she might triumph just where Israel failed.

Then had the Island Throne and sceptre strong

Fulfilled the piomise of Isaiah's song ;

While earth to Sin and Death no more a prey,

Bloomed like a Rose beneath the Saviour's sway!

THE TWO LIVES.

If Socialists were really wise,

They would devote their power

To where man's truest interest lies

Beyond his dying hour.

Man is not served at all apart

From what to God is due,

This world improved by every art,

Is nothing to the new.

And human life how short the term,

As on to death we pass ;

Ambition cannot cheat the worm

And Flesh is only grass.

The hope alone to live again

Can fill this life with joy.

Can solace trouble, banish pain

And every ill destroy.

You say you'll build a perfect State

And men and women mould.

In your conceit you would create

Another ! Age of Gold,

But to what end ? To feed the grave

If God you would dethrone.

You think that man himself can save,

For Biead you give a stone,

This Life is but the road to what

Must follow after death

That Life you say concerns us not

And Prayer is waste of breath.

Oh fools ! to wage a futile strife,

The vital pohit you miss.

The fittest for the future Life

Are fittest too, tor this !

AND VERSES FOR THE TIMES. 13

LOVE~IN TWO PHASES.

Who says the youthful lover cries,

That Passiou ever satisfies.

That for oue instant it can be

Akin to dull satiety ?

When Passion has infiamed his mind,

He finds a maiden sweet and kind

Her smiles alone can fill the hoius

With glowing gleams of Phantom fiowers,

And from her eyes she looks can throw

Surpassing all the ruby's glow,

To kindle fresh his wild desire

And set his very soul on fire.

What though her robes, like blossoms rare,

Can scatter fragrance on the air,

Will Passion stay when Age has come

And every sense is dead or numb ?

Alas ! for those who thus condense

The Love they feel in fleeting sense.

For there will come a fatal hour

When passion loses all its power,

When charms that thrilled, are faded quite

And nought is sweet to touch or sight.

When Passion's fires have burned away

And left but ashes cold and grey.

Be wise aud love for things within,

The things that Life enduring win.

The virgin soul, the feelings chaste.

The things that Death can never taste,

The things that as we older grow,

In beauty through the body glow

The things that youth alone can save.

The things that never know the grave.

Be wed in mind, be wed in heart,

Like Mary choose the better part,

Be wise, tor only love like this

Attains to everlasting bliss,

Uniting those on earth who trod

Unto each other and to God !

14 MAN, THE EARTH AND GOD.

-COMMON THINGS.

Life's common things, to many make

Of happiness the sum.

Though small the lieed of them we take

If still to us they come.

The aspects of the daily sky,

The traffic of the street,

And things quite common oft supply

Diversion true and sweet.

The commonplace that crowds our life

'Gainst which we oft inveigh.

The day with petty matters rife,

Much pleasure may convey.

Though few so much as this confess.

At home one peaceful hour.

To many gives more happiness

Than Pleasure's sweetest flower.

A day without a pain or sigh,

And of excitement void.

Exceeds much joy for which we try

Until by it we're cloyed,

The common things of life should win

Our gradtitude sincere.

For them at least we never sin.

To all they should be dear.

When sated in Success's hour

When we are proud and vain,

It oft has not the slightest power

To vanquish grief and pain.

The quiet of the common place

Is oft to us a balm.

If after joys we vainly chase

It brings to us a calm.

If we were raised to highest state-r—

To all good fortune brings,

That never us could compensate

For loss of Common things.

AND VERSES FOR THE TIMES. 15

THE MIRACLE OF SPACE

Go forth in space — in thought you may,

Beyond the stars the Milky way,

And meet the Hght of stars whose birth

Is not yet known upon the earth.

Those stars that in the sky appear

To be unto each other near,

Although between them space extends

Whose vastness human thought transcends

Still travel with exploring mind.

And well yon know you cannot hnd

Above, beneath, bevond the end

Of space that ever must extend.

That greatest riddle ever wrought

To paralyse profoundest thought.

No answer out of space can come

This Sphinx to mortals still is dumb

Its awful mystery conhned

Alone to the Eternal mind

But whence the human mind inquires

Material for those solar fires

That light and warm this world of our's

The mainspring of all mortal powers

In forming here and there a clod

Tliat may become a child of God,

We know not and we cannot know.

Until from earthly life we go

Wlien if immortal Life we win

An education will begin,

Compaied to which all Science here,

A thing quite childish will appear.

r6 MAN, THE EARTH AND GOD.

SCIENCE AND WARFARE.

Science warfare has befriended

To its everlasting shame,

Gold and Glory murder blended,

Man's destruction for its aim.

How can men with genius gifted /

Prostitute it thus for gain,

Knowing they are hell-ward drifted

With the progeny of gain.

All the honours that have crowned them

Will be impotent to save.

When they see the millions round them

Whom they sent into the grave.

Have they never thoughts appalling

They who have to glory trod.

Of that Judgment Trumpet calling

Murderers to the Bar of God !

CONSCRIPTION.

Conscription is a Governmental crime

An utter shame to any Christian State,

For war it would alas ! perpetuate.

It is the foe of Liberty sublime

It levels Nations as they upward climb

To higher spheres where all is truly great

And past the folly of all National hate

Thus bringing man to the Millennial time

The soldier through the Past has always kept

The Peoples from Fraternity and Love

He with death dealing storms the world has swept

Until War's eagle has destroyed the Dove

God sent to Christ with peace and pardon for

Mankind if only they would sin no more !

AND VERSES FOR THE TIMES. l^

BLOCKING THE WAY.

Progress material is blocking the way

Daily to issues tor which we should pray

The Flesh with the Spirit is always at strife,

Closing the windows that open on Life ;

On Life that is real, not seeming Uke this

Where we barter pure joys for a sensual bliss,

We alter the features of Nature's fair face

Till the labours of man leave of God's not a trace.

Let us cease from this making of things we must leave,

And turn to the things that can never deceive,

Things that bring riches no money can buy,

Things to be ours whenever we die

For the joy that is sensual is doomed to decay,

And the bitter remains while the sweets pass away,

But the joy that is born out of Purity's womb

Gives a lamp to illumine the night of the Tomb.

EMPIRE OR GOD.

Long ages pass across the wave
Our England went to sweep away
The Moslem from the Saviour's grave
At which uncounted pilgrims pray.
Some centuries later Russia sought
To do the thing that vi^e had done.
But England all her Empire brought
To aid the Moslem Cause and won.
Why, why was this ? Let India tell
Where Islam we in folly crowned.
Our rulers feared they would rebel
If we 'gainst Islam had been found.
With Christian blood our Flag we stained
That Islam might victorious be.
And thus our Empire we retained :
Betraying Christianity !

i8 AND VERSES FOR THE TIMES.

THY KINGDOM COME.

" Thy Kingdom come " — from day to day

How many millions voice that prayer.

Who still jiursue their worldly way

As though they thought to hnd it there.

If prayers meant deeds as prayers should do,

If those who prayed would only strive

If only they were pure and true,

How soon that Kingdom would arrive !

"Thy Kingdom come," but some reply :

" What can we do, we are too weak ? "*

The task for us is far too high,

That Kingdom is too far to seek."

" Thy Kingdom come," have faith and pray,

Be good, and leave to God the rest,

And in you on that very day

God's Kingdom W'ill be manifest !

PAX BRITANNICA.

Let Britain grow from sea to sea,

And round the world her banners wave,

To bless the earth with liberty,

Till there remains no single slave.

Let Britain grow from sea to sea,

To bind the world in chains of gold,

Of Commerce and of Industry,

And virtues never bought or sold.

Let Britain grow from sea to sea.

The nations with her might to bless,

Advancing all Humanity

In solid good and happiness.

Let Britain grow from sea to sea.

Her Crown imperial without liaw.

Her Rule the Rule of Equity

To bring all despots under Law.

Let Britain grow from sea to sea,

Her language spoken over earth.

Till every alien longs to be

A citizen of British birth.

AND VERSES FOR THE TIMES. 19

Let Britiaii grow from sea to sea
In strength that makes all war to cease,
Until at last mankind shall be
Beneath her Shield in perfect Peace.

ARMENIA.

WTien the Armenians in their evil day

To Turkish wrath became a helpless prey,

Tiie sword of England sprang not from its sheath,

To snatch one child from the destroyer's teeth,

From death to tear a Christian race away,

And add to England's glory one more ray !

If one were asked to find a single name

That would convict of an undying shame,

That would convict of an enormous guilt.

The world religious on Christ's sufferings built,

Wherein the hopes of Christendom expire,

To brand for doom and retribution dire.

That at Doomsday in trumpet notes will sound,

That awful word is in Armenia found !

Individual and National Christianity.

Full many a home throughout the land is found,
Where Christian Truth is practised as professed,
Where minds devout upon the Bible rest ;
Where prayers go up with no uncertain sound,
Where loving hearts with virtues pure abound ;
Where men and women give to God their best,
Nor seek in science for their faith a test.
In homes like these you tread on holy ground,
But while much individual life is fraught
With all befitting to the Christian state,
To what a pass has policy been brought
Wherein religion has no longer weight.
Where are the nations now who hold it shame.
To bring dishonour on the Christian name.

20 MAN, i'hp: earth and god.
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.

Glancing over vanished ages, see we not that saints and

sages
Have been busy in forecasting all some future Age should be.
Every People good possessing, dowered with material

blessing.
Rich in every good thing lasting and from evil wholly free.
Warfare was to be abolished and all Tyranny demolished.
Virtue was to be victorious and all men and women free.
Love throughout the world extending, Force and hate

together ending
With a future bright and glorious, Iriumph of Humanity !
Truth and justice. Peace and Plenty, with the century

numbered twenty
Was to be an era bearing blessings never known before.
But its dawning only brought us horrors that, alas ! have

taught us
Of mankind to be despairing and their actions to deplore
Millions now are vainly asking why is this ? and overtasking
To despair the human reason that enigma to explain —
Why have Christian nations striven to defy the Will of

Heaven
Facing God in awful Treason to postpone Messiah's reign ?
Christianity had ended every evil, if extended
Round the whole w^orld as completely as we have extended

Trade
Christendom were recreated, if with Love once animated,
And if Christians laboured meetly trusting still in God for

aid!

AND VERSES FOR THE TIMES. 21

A CROWN WITHOUT A CROSS.

I loved him, and he died in youth,
I mourn, but not with hopeless grief,
Because his soul was white as truth,
His record had no blotted leaf.
His heart was warm with love's pure fire ;
He never knew a broken trust,
Or lived to see his hopes expire
In ashes, as so many must.
His Rose of Life was half unblown ;
Its sweetness grew from day to day ;
The cares of age to him unknown.
His morning had no evening grey,
'Tis well, in wisdom's matcliless mail
Temptation to the dust to smite.
But bravest hearts will sometimes fail.
When too prolonged and fierce the fight.
It may be that the King of Heaven
1^^ Elects to have among His train

Some scarless saints with hearts unriven,
And hands for service, free from stain !
The innocence that knew no guile.
The lips that could not frame a lie.
Receive from Christ the sweetest smile
Of recognition when they die.
He died and I lament, but yet
My sorrow is not darkness too,
For Christ His Own will not foget
And all He promised He can do.
To die without a load of sin.
Is worth of many years the loss.
And happy they who thus can win
A Heavenly crown without a cross !

THE NEW OCEAN.

The air is an ocean surrounding the earth.
And from it Fruition and Beauty had birth.
Now man, after ages, in foolishness tries
To make a new sea by invading the skies.

33 MAN, THE EARTH AND GOD.

And the world has now entered an era of dread,

With fleets still increasing to fly overhead.

Each shipwreck above us a terror must be,

And horrors past words in tlie future I see.

But why were the nations so mad to allow

One Airship the deserts of Cloudland to plough ?

And never to Cloudland will man be the same,

And Science for ever the Airship will shame.

Why, why were none with the courage to stay

The giving to Death a new engine to slay ?

Now the air, where no mortal can tread or has trod,

Through a wicked invention is stolen from God.

What folly, what madness, this Ocean to win

In the Airship for man a new hell will begin !

THE RED ENSIGN.

Though oft beneath the ensign white

The cannon's flash has showed

The way to glory, true and bright,

Along each ocean road ;

Although the feeble and oppressed

That Flag has often cheered,

Beneath whose folds no slave can rest,

That Flag by tyrants feared.

As glorious is that ensign Red

That flies on every sea,

And Commerce hath to Conquest wed

That Crown of industry.

The Flag of Man that ensign red.

Supreme on every sea,

Some day o'er all the earth shall spread

In true fraternity.

For Commerce in the end must bind

Beneath its peaceful sway

All nations in an equal mind

Upon each waterway.

And when a Federated world

Hath seen the war fiend die,

That Ensign Red shall still unfurled

On every ocean fly.

AND VERSEvS FOR THE TIMES. 23

A STUDY IN WOMANHOOD.

A healing 'hand, a soothing voice,

Were potent charms in her,

The suffering she could rejoice

Of Hope the minister.

Her Presence was as sunshine bright,

To make the sorrowing glad,

And from her presence came a light

Of Solace for the sad.

Self in her spirit had no part,

Her kindness had no end.

She was a creature full of heart,

A firm and faithful friend.

To know her was to love her well,

She was so pure and good ;

She cast on all the sweetest spell

Of Holy Womanhood.

The spell of holy womanhood

No greater can there be,

In her no evil could intrude.

An earthly angel she.

A maid to make a perfect wife.

And lift some man above

This world into that higher life

Whose source is woman's love.

24 MAN, THE EARTH AND GOD.

ENGLAND'S GLORY.

England now should be a centre

Radiating light to enter.

Over earth all heathen places,

And apostate countries too,

Ocean unto ocean knitting,

Senseless ways of Mammon quitting,

Joining all the coloured races,

Just the will of God to do.

England has an Empire splendid,

Not alone for her intended,

Mighty over every ocean

And supreme from zone to zone

England Empire has been given

To fultil designs of Heaven

And restore that old devotion,

Once the base of Church and Throne.

That is England's glorious mission

Empire given on condition

That its strength shall be devoted

To evangelise the race.

Purity with Peace to marry

And around the world to carry

Christianity promoted

All beside it to displace.

England is an Empire greatest

And it is to be the latest

For that most transcendent glory

To prepare the Saviour's way.

But if false unto her mission

England's end will be perdition,

Revelation tells that story.

On the awful Judgment Day.

Hebrews were at first appointed.

To bring forth a King anointed,

God's Vicegerent — read the story

In the Bible handed down.

Now if the Almighty serving

Faithful loyal and unswerving.

She will find her final glory,

Helping Christ on earth to crown !

AND VERSES FOR THE TIMES. 25

LET THERE BE LIGHT.

When all creation lay in blackest Night,

While Nature slept with undeveloped powers,

Ere Time began to measure out the hours,

God spake those wondrous words "Let there be Light"

And in an instant everything was bright.

The Solar system burst into a blaze.

To God its virgin sacrifice of praise

Wherein the stars, the moon and sun, unite.

But while such splendour through Creation ran,

Revealing beauty God pronounced as good,

Preparing earth to greet primeval man,

With what resplendent light is heaven endued :

And the Redeemed, with wonder dumb, will know

That greater Light that round God's Throne must glow !

On the Recognition of Buddhism
as a State Religion in Ceylon.

All middle courses fatal still must be

With men or nations,when with God they deal ;

With prayers of compromise, we vainly kneel ;

With God excuses are iniquity ;

And Christ is crucified again, when we

Our Christian cowardice, as now, reveal

Through sanction of the Buddhists praying wheel.

That Hindoos may our false religion see !

What wrecked the kingdom David left his son

But that apostate kings of Hebrew race,

Deemed it expedient, to their deep disgrace.

To blend with heathens they were warned to shun,

Beware then, England, ere it is too late.

Lest thou in India meet the Hebrews' fate !

26 MAN, THE EARTH AND GOD.

THE PROGRESS OF ENGLAND.

To put the world in perfect order, so

That all its needful work should smoothly go.

Without additions or complexity,

To render mankind soul and body free,

Were surely Progress worthy of the name ;

That progress to j-iromote the Saviour came.

Then men and women, ground no more to dust.

And Mammon banished with all things unjust,

All might ascend the higher life to know,

Endowed wdth ample leisure here below.

Alas ! is that the aim of modern thought.

To free the labourer what has science wrought ?

Material progress ought to lessen toil.

But all its triumphs are the rich man's spoil.

Were these diffused and common to the race,

The world, indeed, would be an altered place ;

To make it so. Christ on this Earth once trod.

And taught the Progress that must lead to God !

Not such the progress that to us has come ;

The Bible silenced by the soldier's drum,

Our patriots true, rebuked as traitors vile

Because they cannot on our failings smile.

A patriot — can that lofty name belong

To one w^ho lauds his country, right or wrong ?

I think it is agreed the greatest man

Whatever he has wrought, not justly can

Be held to youth as an example high.

Whose life is stained by crimes of deepest dye.

But if this principle for men is true.

It surely must apply to nations too.

Who kills for spite or greed his private foe

Must, if detected, to the scaffold go ;

Though when in thousands soldiers do this thing,

How great the glory it to them will bring !

To steal a purse is rightly held a crime.

To steal a country is an act sublime.

And Christian churches bless with prayer and praise

Their country's army that to conquer slays.

'Tis common to all nations when they tight.

Yet prayers conflicting hardly can be right !

AND VERSES FOK THE TIMES. 27

No matter what the thousands that they kill,

How many homes that they with mourners till,

The arch of triumph and the rolling drum.

The cheering crowds to see the heroes come —

Ail this awaits the men who wisely steal

And murder wholesale for the common weal !

Our Empire, as our safety still depends

Upon the Navy that our coast defends,

Our millions, fed on sea-borne wheat and flour,

Where would they be without our ocean power ?

If one Sedan befell our battle ships.

Should we not know political eclipse ?

For in these days, when science orders war,

Can courage c{aim another Trafalgar ?

All the devotion of the sons of Spain

Counted for nothing on the Cuban Main,

And if we lost supremacy at sea,

England would an unvictualled fortress be !

Let this give pause to those who fancy maps,

If coloured red. can never mean collapse,

And that extention in mere breadth and length

Of Britain's Empire must condition strength.

Our new ambition is to proudly trail

Across the world a glittering peacock's tail,

Blazing with gems we by the sword have won

From almost every nation neath the sun.

These watch the hour, when gorged with gain, supine.

As Rome once lay along her frontier line,

Our foes rush in to reap the vengeance sown

By deeds unjust that England should disown.

There was a time when it was truth to say

Wherever England did our flag display,

There equity was present, clear as light,

And Force subordinated to the Right,

While alt who saw the conflict ever knew

That England present, there was Freedom too !

What constitutes a happy model state ?

It is a people, governed to create

Within their borders all they want of food ;

For such a nation cannot be subdued ;

Thence comes of freeman true, the noblest breed,

Whence justice, peace and equity proceed.

28 MAN. THE EARTH AND GO]^.

The land well peopled and the cities few,

No poor, no rich, but all men well to do.

Such independence far out does in worth

The blood — bought empires that have cursed the earth

For independence is a thing alone

That lifts the lowest to a kingly throne.

THE WIFE AND THE BRIDE.

Bed is the place with a loving face

To smile from the pillow beside.

With eyes that are true as they gaze upon you

From the Wife who is always a Bride !

He who is thinking some woman of linking

To him for the rest of his life.

Should always provide that his love for the Bride

Is greater each year for the Wife I

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CAVLORO

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