Poems, Sacred and Moral/Futurity

by Thomas Gisborne

For works with similar titles, see Futurity.

FUTURITY.

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Behold yon seaman from the o'erhanging shore
Imagined lands across the main explore.
Dim specks and formless lines, with straining gaze,
Lost in the faint horizon's twinkling haze,
Uncertain of its mark his eye pursues;
Nor knows if hills, or fogs, or clouds it views.
Lead but his faltering powers to Wisdom's light,
Through Herschel's wond'rous tube direct his sight;
Clear o'er the wave the purple mountains rise,
And seem to penetrate the stooping skies.

Tir'd of the present, reckless of the past,
With wistful glances to the future cast;
Man, tost in changeful thought, with hope elate,
Wavering, dejected, ponders on his fate:—
"Teach me, great Nature! Yields the soul to Death;
"Or seeks new regions with the parting breath?—
"And what new region?—And must Guilt despair?"—
"Or how, if Justice reign, reigns Mercy there?"—
In syllogistic hood conjecture veils;
Proves moral laws in metaphysic scales;
Hears adverse reasonings noisy warfare wage,
Fool refute fool, and sage encounter sage;
Sees darkness thicken o'er his closing span:
And Fear concludes the search that Doubt began.
Heaven-taught, again he meditates the tomb:
Beams evangelic dissipate the gloom.
What scenes unfold! "Hail, opening bliss!" he cries,
While tears of rapture tremble in his eyes:
"Graved on that mystic Cross I read, 'Forgive!'
"Lo! a Redeemer dies that I may live:
"Lo! rising Saints attest the vanquish'd grave:
"Lo! grace to renovate, a God to save.
"Adieu to fear, uncertainty, and strife:
"Hail, hail, ye glories of immortal life!"