Ah! now 'tis changed. In conquering sunshine bright
The man of the bold West now comes arrayed:
He of the mystic East is touched with night.
THE BETTER PART.
Long fed on boundless hopes, O race of man,
How angrily thou spurn'st all simpler fare!
"Christ," some one says, "was human as we are;
No judge eyes us from heaven, our sin to scan;
We live no more, when we have done our span."
"Well, then, for Christ," thou answerest, "who can care?
From sin which Heaven records not, why forbear?
Live we like brutes our life without a plan!"
So answerest thou; but why not rather say,—
"Hath man no second life? Pitch this one high!
Sits there no judge in heaven, our sin to see?
More strictly, then, the inward Judge obey!
Was Christ a man like us? Ah! let us try
If we then, too, can be such men as he!"
THE DIVINITY.
"Yes, write it in the rock," Saint Bernard said,
"Grave it on brass with adamantine pen!
'Tis God himself becomes apparent, when
God's wisdom and God's goodness are displayed;
For God of these his attributes is made."—
Well spake the impetuous saint, and bore of men
The suffrage captive: now not one in ten
Recalls the obscure opposer he outweighed.9
