EVENTS AND END OF TIME *

A Poem

By the Rev. A.H. Burwell

The fashion (scheme) of this world passeth away.

Time shall be no longer. — Rev. x. 6.
Behold! I make all things new. — Rev. xxi. 5.

Part I.

A fond adieu to the retiring year!
’Tis passed away upon its swift career;
With all its sad events ’tis hurried on;
All unrecallable are past and gone.
Thus fare it with all trouble, toil, and pain!

Thus may they pass, no more to come again!

This year is gone: another comes to trace
Its little circle on Time’s measured race.
The past and future linked are as they run,
Till his predestined course is done:

For years thus linked, continuous, form the chain
Along which Time extends his dark domain,
Beginning at the point where Time began
His flight. Linked with the destinies of Man,
This flight proceeds. Years, onward as they roll,

Now by themselves can be distinct and whole;
But each involved in each, behind, before,
Till ends the chain, and Time shall be no more.
So no man by himself is ever known;
For ’tis not food that man should be alone.

And evil imitates the way designed
To be a blessing to the human kind;
For congregations of the wicked band
Themselves in league to master all the land.

The events of Time are also chains whose rise

Was in one act, man’s sin in Paradise.
Their links, like man, prolific, multiply;
The last in those that follow onward fly.
The impulsive force goes on: Time yields no change
To this; for nature runs through all the range [Page 95]

Of individual things, and never dies
Till Time’s spent pinions beat no more the skies.
Evil events, like chaos, in a skein
Of tangle, intertangle, chain with chain,
And cross and interfere with hurtful force —

And wound and injure, jostling in their course.
And thus they run till Time his finished flight
Concludes at length in everlasting night.
For He whose hand to heaven was lifted, swore
That Time is numbered, and shall be no more.

The ill events of Time shall also sink,
Engulphed beneath oblivion’s lethean brink;
And none shall live in sires as sons do live,
Nor life to those that follow them shall give:
For by His word who in Himself is true,

When Time shall cease he maketh all things new.
From one event one fashion for all things,
One glorious Order for the world up springs:
Fashioned anew from death shall all arise;
And Truth and Peace shall dwell beneath the skies.

That which is perfect shall be brought to life
By Him the Man of counsel and of might.
Embondaged nature then shall all be free,
Nor send to heaven the wail of misery.
Adam begat a son (so God designed)

In his own likeness, after his own kind, —
Adam the fallen. Thus fall by propagation
Descends to each succeeding generation.
Corruption passes onward; death doth spread
His gloomy shroud o’er all, for all are dead;

All, all, since then do breathe but mortal breath,
And all are equal in the common death.
The murderer Cain, with hate and fury blind,
Was first-born of our fallen, degraded kind;
And Abel’s death was witness down how low

Man’s heart had sunk which could devise that blow.
His thoughts were evil only, only sin
In word and deed, the outcome from within.

Actions produce events. The acts of man,
And their events, in nature’s channels ran,

And ran corrupt. The tree of needs must suit
Its offspring to its power of yielding fruit. [Page 96]
The tree corrupt and bad, where then should be
The living proof of the uncorrupted tree?
Corruption, wickedness, the world o’erspread —

Dead beings, thoughts, and works; for all were dead:
And hence the cry of violence and spoil
God heard the cry: for vengeance he descended,
And dealt the blow which o’er the world impended.

’Twas thus this evil scheme of things began.

Its first foundation was the sin of man.
The bad devices of man’s erring heart,
As Time developed them, each took its part:
Ambition, envy, covetous desires,
Wrath, strife, and lust, enkindled all their fires.

The weak submitted to the harsh decree
The strong imposed —for they alone were free
To act their pleasure; as the lion’s paw
Gives the sole sanction to the lion’s law.
But weakness called up cunning to his aid,

(By devilish wisdom thrives the serpent’s trade,)
And craft and art succeeded, till at length
The secret dagger grappled outward strength.

’Twas thus the law of flesh, by sin entailed,
O’er all the family of man prevailed,

With small exception; while beneath God’s eye
The ripening wickedness of man rose high;
Till wearied patience forth in vengeance broke,
And living nature sunk beneath the stroke.

But eight were spared (such grace their faith rewarded

For they God’s truth and warning voice regarded,
And they alone.) The earth re-peopled saw
Man’s quick return to rebel nature’s law;
And Babel grew a tower to reach to heaven:
And from their impious purpose they were driven.

God saw their work: their tongues he did divide,
And with confounded speech rebuked their pride;
While they were scattered (such was his command)
O’er all the earth, to people every land.
The lands grew populous, and nations sprung

From this event of every tribe and tongue. [Page 97]
And empires rose, and men of high renown,
Whose names and actions have descended down
On history’s page. But man, forever vain,
God in his knowledge chose not to retain, —

God manifesting, guiding by His light,
That man might walk securely in the right, —
But turned the truth of God into a lie,
And changed His glory into things that die.
God therefore left him to a darkened mind,

To worship birds and beasts of every kind;
To worship devils, and to find delight
In giving honour by each filthy rite.

And men were soon rewarded for their guile,
For they were filled with every passion vile;

Murder, malignity, debate, deceit,
Pride, envy, cruelty, as it was meet:
And boasters rose, and faithless men became,
Inventing evil things of every name.
Implacable, unmerciful were they;

So far from God their hearts were turned away.
Hardened and savage in their minds they grew;
And some to wilds and hostile climes withdrew,
Where niggard nature yields a scanty fare,
And man becomes as desolate and bare.

Or others grew in wantonness and pride,
And turned the bounteous gifts of heaven aside,
To pamper, by indulgence, every lust,
And spend in riot all his precious trust.

But God, when all men thus had turned aside,

Selected Abram, with whom should abide,
The precious promise from the first he gave —
That He by One the ruined world would save.
He led him forth, and shewed him all the land,
(Still in reversion his, by God’s command.)

There he a stranger was; and then his seed
Came into bondage sore, and then was freed.
God gave them laws: a nation they became,
And in their midst was placed His glorious Name,
His house and worship; —rich deposite; type

Of One to come, when times were fully ripe,
In frail humanity, sent from on high,
To witness for God’s truth, and then to die; [Page 98]
And dying rise, and carry on the strife
By human persons lifted into life;

Till, at the last, (our life in Him the token,)
This evil scheme of things shall all be broken,
And Time shall be no more; and all things new
Shall rise from death by word of Him that’s true.

But Israel soon was puffed with foolish pride,

And swayed from God’s commandments far aside.
As did the erring heathen, so did they,
Till his protection turned them from them away.
So base were they, the nations could not tell
There dwelt a holy God in Israel.

For all the gifts they did from Him receive,
No answering witness they to him did give:
(For ’tis through human life alone the light
Of God shall shine upon the world’s dark night):
And so the heathen measured by their own

False gods, the God who set up David’s throne.
For this in wrath, He bound in chains their hands,
And sent them captive into Pagan lands;
Burned up their cities, drove their flocks away,
And gave their riches to their foes a prey.

In part they were restored; but still pursued,
They the false ways that never brought them good;
Till God in mercy sent the promised One,
To bruise the serpent’s head, the woman’s son,
Of David’s line. For God He testified,

In word and work: they saw but to deride.
He offered them God’s kingdom: they reply:
All royalties but Caesar’s we deny.
Him sinner, liar, glutton, fiend they call.
Yet still he loves, and weeps upon their fall —

They counsel take —they nail him to the tree,
And say if God be with him, we shall see.
They said, but saw not. When He rose they cried,
His followers stole Him from us: but they lied!

The risen One, still to His purpose true,

His chosen followers called, (they were but few,)
Instructed them; ascended in their sight,
And shortly gave the promise of His might.
It came in gifts designed to break that power
Of evil first made known in Eden’s bower, —

Apostles, prophets, preachers, teachers, they
To rule, build, comfort, teach, and shew the way; [Page 99]
To heal, cast devils out, and to abide
With every gift in fullness well supplied,
Till He should come His promised bride to claim,

And seal upon her his exalted name.
They preached their risen King, His kingdom near:
T’the Jews ’twas offered; but they would not hear.
T’the Gentiles then, the messengers replied,
Since you reject it still, we turn aside.

God would accept you for the father’s sakes;
But now the remnant from the Gentiles takes.

Then came the wrath of the rejected King.
Their chosen Caesar’s eagles take the wing.
Ten thousand horrors rise around their walls:

In fire and blood their boasted city falls:
Their temple sinks, and with it sinks their state;
And they are given a prey to pagan hate.

Their mission was, that they to man should tell
Of the true God who in their midst did dwell,

And shew, by deeds of truth forever done,
The path of duty for the world to run.
They should have know their King, of David’s line,
Born to his house, but yet the King divine.
The priests and rulers should at once have given

Their whole allegiance to this Prince from heaven,
And shown th’ inquiring Gentiles when they sought,
The wondrous thing their God for them had wrought;
For He had given them their exalted place
To bring this blessing to the human race.

But such the fate of those who Christ deny:
So sinks the sun of those who God defy:
Such is their doom who cast His gifts aside,
And spurn their calling with presumptuous pride.
Depart far from us, if to Him they say,

He for a season grants their wicked way.
Yet shall their schemes go down in ruin all,
And man’s proud works evanish in the fall.
And heaven and earth that are shall be no more:
For crushing judgments all their parts shall find,

Nor leave a wreck of what they were behind.

But now the Church came into Israel’s place,
To stand for God and witness to our race; [Page 100]
To be the living body whence to shew,
By word and deed, if God be God or no.

Not once or twice, (as evidence mongers say,)
But unto everlasting from that day:
To stand in heavenly purity before
That world for which God’s vengeance is in store:
To shew the judgment and its cause declare; —

That men from God themselves had banished far;
But shew His perfect way revealed, that all
Might bear to listen to the judgment call —
Judgment by One, a Man whose honoured head
For judgment God had lifted from the dead: —

The gospel to the contrite heart to preach:
The ways of truth and righteousness to teach:
To shew, by deeds of mercy, God come nigh,
To wipe the bitter tear from sorrow’s eye:
The present God, though hidden, to declare,

In that His power, and love, and truth were there:
Not in abstractions, but in works of power,
To raise from sickness, and from death restore:
To cast out devils, and the lame to heal;
Deaf ears to open, and blind eyes unseal;

And thus to make man’s hard conscience carry home
The premonitions of the world to come: —
To preach the Kingdom, and the King’s return:
(His absence then was deemed a short sojourn;
Absence to sight:) ready the Bride to make,

That, coming, her He to Himself might take, —
His glorious Bride, prepared to meet His will,
Spotless and pure. For her He tarries still.
For when the throne of empire He ascends,
Robes, crowns, and scepters are for all His friends: —

Princes prepared in His right royal school,
That when He reigns in truth, they may in judgment rule.

These things to Caesar and his friends to tell;
To ring (it might be,) nature’s funeral knell;
To cast reproach on all the ways of man.

Their condemnation shew by God’s own plan;
The sure destruction of this world’s whole scheme;
Its vain philosophy, its every dream;
Its wicked works; its cruelty; its guile:
Its low pursuits and pleasures, base and vile; —

These to denounce. What then? The fiery brand,
The sword, the torture —these were all at hand.
The rage of Caesar, and the spite of hell — [Page 101]
The rage of millions —Who that rage can tell?
The force of rage, the craft of cruel spite, —

Who could withstand them, and esteem them light?
They were withstood; they lightly were esteemed;
And they were borne as if the only seemed.
And light they were, and briefly endured.
But soon the Church grew weary with her lot;

Her first love, life, strength, power, and works forgot;
Went back to flesh to perfect what began
From God alone, though manifest by man.
Divisions grew, and fleshly ways prevailed,
Till overwhelmed in flesh, she well nigh failed.

In anger God His guardian hand withdrew;
Permitted Satan to come in and sow
His tares, and suffered briers and thorns to grow:
The clouds above commanded not to yield
Their blessing on the labours of the field.

His cov’nant He did for a time make void,
And give His vineyard up to be destroyed.
The mystery of iniquity began
Full soon to mar and hinder God’s true plan;
And grievous wolves assaulted all the flock;

And doctor’s brought up Balak’s stumbling block;
And Jezebel, false prophetess, came in,
And taught for truth the wily ways of sin.
Thus grapes of Sodom in the vineyard grew,
Grapes of that bitter vine which God o’erthrew.

Forgetful of the gifts that God had given,
Gifts filled with all the armature of heaven,
The Church her course shaped to the world around,
And in that course her own advantage found.
Meantime relenting Caesar changed his hate;

The Church was ready to obey his nod,
And Caesar sat before her as a god.
His mantle o’er the naked one he spread:
His craft of state he added; it did please her.
The Jews once said —“We have no King but Caesar.”

But Caesar’s Kingdom rose not on the base
Of law from God, nor e’er to it gave place;
Nor will indeed such sure foundation own
Till Caesar shall be judged and overthrown.
But judgment upon Caesar must be done;

For judgment all committed is to One.
For judgment came He, and the world shall know,
If not the warning, yet the certain blow. [Page 102]

Proud Caesar will not give the kiss of peace,
And yield submission; hence his reign must cease;

And He the beastly Caesar soon shall tame,
And give his carcass to the burning flame. *
His truth and honour He will vindicate,
Though long, as men account, His patience wait.
By “Church and State” (how have we been beguiled!)

Caesar to God has n’er been reconciled.
Law to His Church hath come from Caesar’s crown,
And thus God’s vineyard hath been trodden down.
“Dreadful and terrible and strong: was he
When Daniel saw him rising from the sea, —

The sea of every kindred, folk, and tongue;
For ’twas from thence the impious monster sprung.
A beast he was and ir, and will be when
He sinks forever from the sight of men.

The Church degraded from her high estate,

(For her own folly, not by Satan’s hate)
Robbed of her strength, her rich endowment gone,
(For God revealing, guiding, had withdrawn)
Sought to this Caesar in the gloomy hour,
And found relief from Satan’s outward power.

So Saul, of God deserted, sought to find
Relief from witchcraft for his troubled mind.
Then soon, commingled with the outward state,
The Church became confused and corporate;
And gave and took, exchanged, and bought, and sold,

And valued sacred things by Caesar’s gold.
By Caesar’s wisdom, arms, and arts she ruled:
By Caesar’s craft and wiles she was befooled:
By Caesar’s cruelty and thirst of blood,
In terror clad, she kept the faith and stood.

But down the course of Time let’s take our stand,
And see what views from thence we may command,
While underneath the mischief works which brings
At last destruction on the scheme of things.

The church now mingled with the beast we see,

The beast which rose from out the bitter sea, —
The restless sea, that swells, and breaks, and roars,
When angry winds arouse its turbid shores;
Partaking of his moods, and ways, and things, [Page 103]
And schemes and policies. She forward brings,

Her own contrivances as treasures meet,
And means to do her Master’s work complete.
Are rancorous evils rampant in the state?
Do fractions rise, and strive, and emulate?
Do vain economists and would be-wise

Their means to make men good and great devise,
While yet fierce passions and consuming hate
Destroy the earth in spite of good and great?
Will Peace Societies the venom draw
From out man’s nature rampant o’er God’s law?

Look around you o’er the broken church, and see
How many factions, wounds, and strifes there be!
What vain contrivances to stanch and heal
The sad disorders all men see and feel!
What policy the scanty pittance brings

To those who minister in holy things;
While sacrilege assumes an air of grace,
And robs God of His tithe before His face!
Do private “clubs” disorganize the state?
The mischief in the church is quite as great.

Do rebel “agitators” force the crown?
Our “private judgment” tears our mother down.
Does anarchy the public weal o’erthrow?
Church anarchy has laid the church as low.
Nay, scarce is there a thing with ruin fraught,

But in some form hath by the church been taught.
Is there with crowns no wisdom, counsel, might?
As little can the church with Satan fight?
Her children at each other aim the blow:
She tears herself in pieces, not the foe.

Do plague and pestilence their millions slay?
False doctrine kills as many souls as they.
Do tens of thousands by the famine pine?
There is a famine of the word divine.
Do enemies their toils around us close?

How sad that brethren thus should disagree!
The church’s children are the men we know.
Alas! that one should be another’s foe!

’Tis thus confusion all his forces pours,
And round our house the raging tempest roars!

Such was “the Day of Midian,” when the might
Of Midian crumbled in a household fight!

’Tis written that power belongs to none but God;
That men for Him alone should bear the rod;
Their rulers should, like Him, be just and kind,
And Him, their Master, ever bear in mind.
But whence arose this modern cry, that might

And power are of the subject, and his right?
That rank, and place, and eminence of station
Are his alone, and of his own creation?
Caesar has ever been an untamed beast,
A selfish creature, whether lay on priest;

More careful of the fleece than of the sheep;
Who station kept, that he himself might keep.
For rulers have their sacred trust abused;
God’s name and ordinances in oppression used
More than for blessing. He to them doth say,

When thrusting their pretences far away:
“Ye eat the fat, ye clothe you with the wool;
My people’s flesh you from their bones to pull;
Ye leave them in the dark and cloudy day,
To every prowling beast a helpless prey.”

All know how rulers have abused their might —
What worsting judgment and perverting right! —
What turning power into a gainful trade!
What riches by oppression have been made!
How Christian Europe has been trodden down,

That such might thrive as wore the sword or gown!
How oft have flagrancy and foul abuse
Furnished rebellion’s plausible excuse!
What fierce contentions ’twixt the rival great,
Which ground to dust the man of meaner state!

The path of this world’s greatness, it appears,
Hath ever been bedewed with blood and tears, [Page 105]
But littleness hath also done its part,
Outward to bring what lurks in every heart.
The same corruption dwells in high and low,

And all have caused the blood and tears to flow.
Oppressive kings have rebel subjects found,
And good ones never have maintained their ground.
Internal discord and the unsubject will
Have wrought oppression by the many still.

The struggle hath been constant, who should sway
What power he might, and keep his private way;
And law and justice have been turned to snares,
Subtle and deep, to catch all unawares.

But now that knowledge lifts her standard high,

The multitude demand a reason why,
Since power and place for good to all were made,
Why, like a vast monopoly in trade,
The few have ever held them for their gain,
And shouted “Treason!” when the mass complain.

Nature can see no reason in such things
As power from God, and right divine of kings;
And fallen nature asks no other light
Than self can furnish in a claim of right.
The million say: “henceforth we Caesar stand;

We take his place; we exercise command.”
So the crowned locusts, rising from the pit
In smoke and brimstone, each is every whit
A king supreme, —with torment in his tail;
But over all Apollyon doth prevail. *

What though distinctions subtle sophists draw?
Caesar still makes his will his rule of law.
To sight there’s nothing to rebut this last,
For churchmen teach that miracles are past:
That book and argument are all we need

To test the verity of claim or creed;
That guidance manifest from God is not,
And ne’er was given to be the church’s lot:
That though contention, strife, and ward divide us,
Presumption ’tis to think that God would guide us,

As He our fathers guided. Party votes,
Produced by our intrigues, these are the notes,
And marks, and means of guidance: So, of course,
Our rule has been, —majorities, brute force.
The strongest ever did maintain the field,

The weaker feeling they to force must yield.
The sword has been our only umpire known;
Whereas at first ’twas God, and God alone.
While men were faithful all by Him were guided:
Now ’tis —vote and divide; and we’re divided. [Page 106]

Self and division mark our downward track,
And subdivision thunders at our back,
The tangled skein becomes entangled more,
But party will not give the struggle o’er.
So when Jerusalem was girt about,

Faction within slew more than foes without.

But by the many ’tis found out at length,
That all have measured right by human strength!
That creed for ages has maintained its stand
By Caesar’s arguments, not God’s right hand;

That book and logic, now in the minority,
Must yield the world of power to the majority.
That’s the new version of the ancient rule
That might makes him right; and so the modern school,
Turning the tables on the ancient trade,

Count heads to know whose will shall be obeyed,
The will of one man or the will of many,
(God’s will is not now mentioned e’en by any,)
Or, as the way with some, pull down the throne,
That right may rule, and rulers true be known;

And mobs and factions riot in their might,
And trample all things down to set them right.

But million Caesar is but Caesar still;
His rule is but the rule of the human will;
And Caesar is a beast. Caesar must die,

Because a beast he will be, low or high.
And Caesar’s worshippers in church or state,
If they his honours share, must share his fate.
Not the proud woman who the beast doth ride,
Can from the righteous retribution hide.

She seeks t’ entice him; but the attempt is vain:
He spurns her logic as he spurns her chain,
And treats her as a sorceress. In his hate
He eats her flesh, and makes her desolate,
And burns her in the fire. So God commands,

Because the blood of saints is on her hands,
And in her cup. *But he in turn must die,
For that he fights to vanquish the Most High!

’Tis thus the lurking mischief long has wrought
The will of Satan, till at length ’tis brought

To bear, on principles, the open sway,
And all disguises wholly cast away.
The tares have grown till they engross the field:
And harvest ripens, and their fruit they yield. [Page 107]

The church herself mixed with this scheme of things:

She cast her fortune with the lot of kings:
She took their wisdom for her guide; their power
For her protection in the trying hour;
And in her nakedness and blindness cries:
Lo, I am rich, and full, and strong, and wise!

But she on their foundation of the sand
The rising storm and floods can ne’er withstand;
For while the judgments sweep away their might,
She (as a millstone sinks) vanishes from sight!
Her children now usurp proud Caesar’s seat:

As Caesar’s mistress they their mother treat;
Sack Caesar’s palace; turn Caesar out,
And burn his throne amidst the rabble rout.
Worship the beast! they cry, the beast of hell!
Obey the many, or not buy nor sell!

Leviathon doth rise —reform! reform!
Or take th’ alternative —an iron storm!
He lifts himself; the mighty are afraid —
In vain against him is the purpose laid!
The kings of earth concede to him their power

Against the Almighty —’tis but one short hour!
“THE BREAKER” all his heavenly forces brings —
To endless ruin sinks this evil scheme of things!

The chain of Time no longer shall be drawn!
The fashion of this world is past and gone:

The god of this world never more shall be
Lord of misrule: cast out and chained is he,
No more he travels up and down with power
To injure, seeking whom he may devour;
Nor fans the flames of war and conflict dire,

Nor in his malice sets the world on fire.
No more he gloats o’er human misery:
With vengeful mind cast out and chained is he.
The greedy beast that did the vine devour,
Perverts no more the heaven appointed power:

The tossing winds that roused the turbid ocean,
No more shall mingle all in wild commotion;
For He that stays the flight of Time, the True,
Comes forth and saith: “I fashion all things new!”
But has the church, the one betrothed and loved,

No other that a vast abortion proved? [Page 108]

Not so! God’s word, wherever it is sent,
Fulfils His own decree, His own intent,
The dispensation does what was designed —
Takes an election out of all mankind;

And sooner, later, does prepare the way.
That He who comes may make no long delay.
First to the Jew God’s kingdom was brought nigh;
But he, rebellious, thrust the honour by.
For God has said: If ye obey my voice,

Ye shall remain the treasure of my choice;
Of priests a kingdom, in my light to shine,
And lighten all; for all the earth is mine. *
He then in mercy to the Gentiles came,
To take from them his people for a Name — **

To be that royal priesthood, and declare
To all mankind how great His glories are;
That all the Gentiles in the end might know
That mercies from Him forever flow.
Kings they shall be: their royal priestly reign

Shall ever flourish. So doth God ordain,
With them the Man of sorrow (now of joy,)
Comes forth the great usurper to destroy;
And, as the sun, unceasing they shall shine,
O’er all the world in light and love divine.

To this are many called. The chosen few
Obtain the prize, because He finds them true.
From first to last all that are faithful found
Shall, in the end, acknowledged be, and crowned.
King, ruler, priest, or subject, bond, or free,

That has served God, shall then accepted be.
All that have honoured Him in their estate,
When He appears, shall be accounted great.
Jewels they shall be in his royal crown,
And names shall bear of ever fresh renown.

Brands from the burning they: the spoils of Time,
When nature’s course has felt the fire of hell
Sweeping the church from end to end, full well
The course of such. Martyrs, confessors, they;
(Their lives have ever been to them a prey:)

The salt of Christendom, —of rank, of station,
Of rich, and poor, and sect, and age, and nation.
As David ’midst his wars at large prepared
To build the temple his successors reared;
So God prepares, beneath this reign of night,

The power that is to crush the serpent’s might,
And o’er the New Creation reign, the sons of light. [Page 109]
When He who numbers all the stars shall find
The number predetermined in his mind;
To form the body, to complete the bride,

This dispensation must be set aside.
The gathering net must then be drawn ashore;
The bad rejected, but the good in store
Laid up for future use: as else it fares;
The wheat at harvest from amidst the tares

Is gathered safely; while the tares retire
To be the food of everlasting fire.
It is the time of gathering: ’tis the end:
Like comes to like, and friend is found with friend.
Divide! the order is; divide! divide;

Halt not between opinions! take your side
With Israel’s God or Baal! And thus go forth
The unclean spirits to the kings of earth,
To gather all their forces to the flight,
Which ends in the destruction of their might.

And others gathered are. The Lord on high
Calls up the faithful dead; the living fly;
And both to Him are gathered in the air.
Thus for the final struggle to prepare.
The mystery of iniquity hath wrought

As leaven long; now to a head ’tis brought.
The ripening tare unfold their shameless face;
The man of sin comes forth, matured thereby —
The lawless One, who sets his throne on high;
Who lifts o’er all the earth his iron rod,

And claims a place above the stars of God.

All things are hastening now to be revealed;
The sons of glory too, so long concealed;
The hidden members, fashioned in the earth
Beneath in secret, soon shall come to birth,

And light of resurrection, all creation,
In groaning waits the glorious consummation.
And they shall be revealed, heads of estates,
For whom the kingdom of their Father waits.
The double portion of the first-born they

Receive, and bear the everlasting sway;
And the saved nations all their honour bring,
Presenting to the children of the King.

What’s Time? It is a parenthetic space
Within existence, running a short race;

Full of events momentous. It began
In Eden with the pristine sin of man.
Onward it passes: in its whole career, [Page 110]
Loaded with misery ’tis from year to year.
Its records are the chronicles of crime

And human madness. All the curse of Time
Is big with turmoil, wrath, contention, strife,
And war, and misery. Such is human life!
And Time, as he advances, ever flings
Some new perplexity o’er human things;

Effects some change in evil, each more sore
And sorrow laden than the one before;
Brings forth some new-born wickedness, to chase
God’s likeness from our ruined race,
Until the last, worst monster comes, and then

The Great Avenger shows Himself to men;
Destroys the arch destroyer; closes Time,
And opens all the chronicles of crime;
Judges the world; its wicked scheme removes,
And gives the fashion to it God approves.

Meanwhile, e’en from the first, unseen by man,
Onward has the Almighty moved His plan.
(For sin has dimmed man’s eyes and closed his sight,
And in his alien state he shuns the light:
Yet to a chosen few has light been given;

And such have ever seen the hand of heaven.)
Through all the darkest seasons God has wrought;
Securely forward all His purpose brought;
The wickedness of man, the spite of hell
Has used, that they at least His praise might swell:

At every step the enemy has foiled,
That, in the end, the spoiler might be spoiled:
Has watched, and kept the labour of the field,
That safely stored what treasure it might yield.

The Word made Flesh into the world was sent:

In travail, toil, and shame, his life was spent,
That He, through death, might work the Eternal Will,
And all the earth with God’s own glory fill.
He took the labour, and endured the pains,
And turns them into everlasting gains;

Casts out the fiend who did to all aspire,
And binds him helpless in eternal fire.
For this a name of dignity is given
Above the mightiest names of earth or heaven;
At which all knees in homage low shall fall,

And every tongue confess Him Lord of all!
Then He, the Mighty, Merciful, and True,
The earth delivered will make all things new.
Order and beauty at his word shall rise,
And righteousness, descending from the skies,

Shall welcome truth emerging from the earth. [Page 111] 
(For nature struggles to the second birth;)
And Mercy, as all enmities will cease,
Shall seal forgiveness with the kiss of peace.
Death at His bidding shall be overthrown,

And pain, and grief, and sickness, be unknown.
The throne of judgement and eternal right
Shall be established in resistless might:
The righteous sceptre shall o’er all extend,
And God with man shall dwell as friend with friend.

For man, subdued and peaceable, shall rise
No more against the counsel of the skies,
The will of God shall on the earth be done:
All wills shall then be harmonized in one;
All creatures’ wills to unity be brought.

And His own will through many shall be wrought:
One creed in high and low, in great and small;
For God within them shall be all in all:
And in their midst a city he’ll prepare,
Whose name unchanging is —“THE LORD IS THERE!”

Without regret, then, let the years pass by;
On Time’s swift flight bestow no lingering sigh!
Trouble and Time their race together run,
This world and Time together have their course,
This world lies in the wicked one: the source

This of unnumbered ills; but so no more;
The reign of sin and darkness will be o’er.
The prince of this world sees his dark career
Foreclosing swiftly each revolving year.
“The world to come,” too, rises on the sight,

And faith beholds it by celestial light: —
The world to come whose course shall measured be
Be God’s designs, and by eternity.
Then come that world! Lord Jesus, quickly come,
And with mankind make Thy abiding home!

The earth is Thine! the nations are Thine own!
Bring them to worship round the Eternal Throne!
All things subdue beneath thy sacred feet;
And yield them up to God a holocaust complete! [Page 112]

* This poem appeared in The Literary Garland (Montreal), N,S. VII, (June, 1849), 251-254, 325-327. [back]

* Dan. Vii, 11. [back]

* Rev. ix. 3-11. [back]

* Rev. xvii. [back]

* Exodus xix. 5, 6. [back]