| THE MASTER stood upon the mount, and taught. | |
| He saw a fire in his disciples’ eyes; | |
| ‘The old law’, they said, ‘is wholly come to naught! | |
| Behold the new world rise!’ | |
| |
| ‘Was it’, the Lord then said, ‘with scorn ye saw | 5 |
| The old law observed by Scribes and Pharisees? | |
| I say unto you, see ye keep that law | |
| More faithfully than these! | |
| |
| ‘Too hasty heads for ordering worlds, alas! | |
| Think not that I to annul the law have will’d; | 10 |
| No jot, no tittle from the law shall pass, | |
| Till all hath been fulfill’d.’ | |
| |
| So Christ said eighteen hundred years ago. | |
| And what then shall be said to those to-day, | |
| Who cry aloud to lay the old world low | 15 |
| To clear the new world’s way? | |
| |
| ‘Religious fervours! ardour misapplied! | |
| Hence, hence,’ they cry, ’ye do but keep man blind! | |
| But keep him self-immersed, preoccupied, | |
| And lame the active mind!’ | 20 |
| |
| Ah! from the old world let some one answer give: | |
| ‘Scorn ye this world, their tears, their inward cares? | |
| I say unto you, see that your souls live | |
| A deeper life than theirs! | |
| |
| ‘Say ye: The spirit of man has found new roads, | 25 |
| And we must leave the old faiths, and walk therein?— | |
| Leave then the Cross as ye have left carved gods, | |
| But guard the fire within! | |
| |
| ‘Bright, else, and fast the stream of life may roll, | |
| And no man may the other’s hurt behold; | 30 |
| Yet each will have one anguish—his own soul | |
| Which perishes of cold.’ | |
| |
| Here let that voice make end; then let a strain, | |
| From a far lonelier distance, like the wind | |
| Be heard, floating through heaven, and fill again | 35 |
| These men’s profoundest mind: | |
| |
| ‘Children of men! the unseen Power, whose eye | |
| For ever doth accompany mankind, | |
| Hath looked on no religion scornfully | |
| That men did ever find. | 40 |
| |
| ‘Which has not taught weak wills how much they can? | |
| Which has not fall’n on the dry heart like rain? | |
| Which has not cried to sunk, self-weary man: | |
| Thou must be born again! | |
| |
| ‘Children of men! not that your age excel | 45 |
| In pride of life the ages of your sires, | |
| But that you think clear, feel deep, bear fruit well, | |
| The Friend of man desires.’ | |
