Classic Poem

What is that voice whose far-off echoes stir
The city of the King, Jerusalem?
Why flock they to that unknown messenger
Whose solitary presence troubles them;
And, leaving home and mart and temple, press
Around that prophet in the wilderness?

Hark! there was in his burning words a fire,
Which lit the smouldering embers of their breast;
A lightning flash, which spite of shame and ire,
Laid bare the secret of their heart's unrest.
The axe was lying by the fruitless tree:
Time paled before a near eternity.

The prophet smote them; bitter was the pain:
Full on their soul they felt the eye of heaven;
But lo! the Lamb of God for sinners slain
Breathed in the Baptist's words of sin forgiven:
There was new life in his stern cry, Repent,—
Life everlasting for the penitent.

Lord, need we not a voice, like John's, to-day,
Startling the slumbers of this age of ours,
This age of iron and of miry clay,
When men, equipp'd in Nature's wrested powers,
Now soar to God's throne on presumptuous wing,
Now deify the earth to which they cling?

Seems it the world is sinking low and lower
In greed of gain and luxury of lust?
Seems it the Church's pulse is feebler, slower,
And faith's clear vision dimm'd with Reason's dust,
Reason which is unreason,—clouds which mar
The sharp-cut outline of the things that are?

Is it once more that, while the Bridegroom waits,
The virgins slumber and their lamps grow dim?
Will no man cry, “He stands before the gates:
Awake, arise. Go forth to welcome Him”?
Are there not watchers for the morning yet,
Who hail the kindling glow on Olivet?

Night is far spent, the dayspring is at hand;
And sin abounds, and love is waxing cold:
Why do Thy servants, Lord, thus trembling stand?
Is not Thine Arm almighty as of old?
Thy early herald grasp'd the hearts of men:
Is not Thy Spirit's might the same as then?

Oh, grant the stewards of Thy mysteries
May hear the Bridegroom's steps, the Bridegroom' voice,
And still amid the vain world's myriad cries
Make answer, watch to watch, “He comes—rejoice”—
Until the day breaks and the shadows flee,
And earth, as heaven, adores and worships Thee.