Page:The poems of Richard Watson Gilder, Gilder, 1908.djvu/386

358 Hear ye, O hear! that ceaseless-pleading voice,

Which storm, nor suffering, nor age could still—

Chief prophet-voice through nigh a century's span!

Now silvery as Zion's dove that mourns,

Now quelling as the Archangel's judgment-trump,

And ever with a sound like that of old

Which, in the desert, shook the wandering tribes,

Or, round about storied Jerusalem,

Or by Gennesaret, or Jordan, spake

The words of life.

Let not that image fade

Ever, O God! from out the minds of men,

Of him Thy messenger and stainless priest,

In a brute, sodden, and unfaithful time,

Early and late, o'er land and sea, on-driven;

In youth, in eager manhood, age extreme—

Driven on forever, back and forth the world,

By that divine, omnipotent desire,

The hunger and the passion for men's souls!

Ah, how he loved Christ's poor! No narrow thought

Dishumaned any soul from his emprize;

But his the prayer sincere that Heaven might send

Him chiefly to the humble; he would be,

Even as the Galilean, dedicate

Unto the ministry of lowliness:

That boon did Heaven mercifully grant;

And gladly was he heard; and rich the fruit;

While still the harvest ripens round the earth;

And many own the name once given in scorn;

And all revere the holy life he led,

Praise what he did for England, and the world,

And call that greatness which was once reproach.

Would we were worthy for his praise.