Swaggered in midst of heaven, grew black and dark, The heavens, this moment, looked serene; the next, Of some disaster great and ultimate, The tree that bloomed, or hung with clustering fruit Untouched by visible calamity Of frost or tempest, died and came again. The flower and herb fell down as sick; then rose Dogs howled, and seemed to see more than their masters, POLLOK. THE LAST DAY. HE Lord will come! the earth shall quake, And, withering, from the vault of night The stars withdraw their feeble light. The Lord will come! but not the same A silent Lamb to slaughter led, The bruised, the suffering, and the dead. The Lord will come! a dreadful form, Can this be He who wont to stray Go, tyrants! to the rocks complain! HIEBER. TIIE LAST DAY. HUS came the day, the Harp again began, That all the wicked wished should never come, That all the righteous had expected long; Day greatly feared, and yet too little feared By him who feared it most; day laughed at much By the profane, the trembling day of all Who laughed; day when all shadows passed, all dreams; When substance, when reality commenced; Last day of lying, final day of all Deceit, all knavery, all quackish phrase; Judge of all judgments, Judge of every judge, Adjuster of all causes, rights and wrongs; Whence she returned, confounded, trembling, pale, Great day!-what can we more? what should we more? Great triumph-day of God's incarnate Son! Great day of glory to the Almighty God! And oft referred to in the song of heaven! Thus stood the apostate, thus the ransomed stood, Those held by justice fast, and these by love, POLLOK. THE LAST DAY. VEN thus amid thy pride and luxury, O Earth! shall that last coming burst on thee, When all the cherub-thronging clouds shall shine, When that Great Husbandman shall wave his fan, And Heaven his presence own, all red with furnace heat. The hundred-gated Cities then, The Towers and Temples named of men Eternal, and the Thrones of Kings; The gilded summer Palaces, The courtly bowers of love and ease, Where still the Bird of Pleasure sings; Go-gaze on fallen Jerusalem! Yea, mighiter names are in the fatal roll; 'Gainst earth and heaven God's standard is unfurled; The skies are shrivelled like a burning scroll, And one vast, common doom ensepulchres the world. Oh, who shall then survive? Oh, who shall stand and live? When all that hath been is no more: When for the round earth hung in air, With all its constellations fair, In the sky's azure canopy; When for the breathing Earth, and sparkling Sea, Lord of all power, when thou art there alone Needs not the perished sun nor moon: When thou art there in thy presiding state, Wide-sceptred Monarch o'er the realm of doom: When from the sea depths, from earth's darkest womb, The dead of all the ages round thee wait; And when the tribes of wickedness are strewn, Like forest leaves in the autumn of thine ire, Faithful and True! thou still wilt save thine own! The Saints shall dwell within the unharming fire; Each white robe spotless, blooming every palm, Each safe as we, by thy still fountain's side, So shall the Church, thy bright and mystic Bride, Sit on the stormy gulf a halcyon bird of calm. Yes, mid yon angry and destroying signs, O'er us the rainbow of thy mercy shines, We hail, we bless the covenant of its beam Almighty to revenge, Almightiest to redeem! MILMAN. THE LAST DAY. ARK! from the deep of heaven, a trumpet sound From north to south, from east to west it rolls, A blast that summons all created souls: |