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THE ATHEIST.
Mark the wild billows, dashing madly onward,
Whelming- thy fellow-men beneath their waves;
Then ask if these shall sleep, when sunken downward,
Forever, in the sea-god's hidden caves!
Whelming- thy fellow-men beneath their waves;
Then ask if these shall sleep, when sunken downward,
Forever, in the sea-god's hidden caves!
Go to yon widow: she is worn and weary,
Neglected, ignorant, and very old;
The world to her had been a desert dreary,
Had she not treasures richer far than gold.
Her friends are dead, her children gone before her;
Whence comes her consolation, whence her strength?
See! she looks meekly to the azure o'er her,—
There she will meet them all, in bliss, at length.
Neglected, ignorant, and very old;
The world to her had been a desert dreary,
Had she not treasures richer far than gold.
Her friends are dead, her children gone before her;
Whence comes her consolation, whence her strength?
See! she looks meekly to the azure o'er her,—
There she will meet them all, in bliss, at length.
Go, lastly, to thy gifted fellow-being;
Ask him who breathed through darkened clay a light;
Bid him remember that the eye All-Seeing
Is fixed upon him, that he answer right.
Bid him remember that the Book of heaven
Records each word as soon as it is thought;
Then ask him if by chance the soul was given,
And surely he will answer, "It is not."
Ask him who breathed through darkened clay a light;
Bid him remember that the eye All-Seeing
Is fixed upon him, that he answer right.
Bid him remember that the Book of heaven
Records each word as soon as it is thought;
Then ask him if by chance the soul was given,
And surely he will answer, "It is not."
No, it is not! the boundless aspirations,
The splendid ideas that the soul drinks in,
The thirst for knowledge, and the free oblations
That Truth demands, forbid the love of sin.
The splendid ideas that the soul drinks in,
The thirst for knowledge, and the free oblations
That Truth demands, forbid the love of sin.
