Page:Poems written during the progress of the abolition question in the United States.djvu/57

 Pilate and Herod, friends! Chief priests and rulers, as of old, combine! Just God and holy! is that church which lends Strength to the spoiler, Thine? Paid hypocrites, who turn Judgment aside, and rob the Holy Book Of those high words of truth which search and burn In warning and rebuke. Feed fat, ye locusts, feed! And, in your tasselled pulpits, thank the Lord That, from the toiling bondsman's utter need, Ye pile your own full board. How long, oh Lord! how long Shall such a Priesthood barter Truth away, And, in Thy name, for robbery and wrong At thy own altars pray? Is not Thy hand stretched forth Visibly in the heavens to awe and smite? Shall not the living God of all the earth, And heaven above, do right? Woe, then, to all who grind Their brethren of a Common Father down! To all who plunder from th' immortal mind Its bright and glorious crown! Woe to the Priesthood! woe To those whose hire is with the price of blood—

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