Classic Poem

If thou hast ever felt that all on earth
Is transient and unstable, that the hopes
Which man reposes on his brother man
Are but broken reeds; if thou hast seen
That life itself “is but a vapor,” sprung
From time's upheaving ocean, decked, perhaps
With here and there a rainbow, but full soon
To be dissolved and mingled with the vast
And fathomless expanse that rolls its waves
On every side around thee; if thy heart
Has deeply felt all this, and thus has learned
That earth has no security, then go
And place thy trust in God.


The bliss of earth
Is transient as the colored light that beams
In morning dewdrops. Yet a little while,
And all that earth can show of majesty,
Of strength, or loveliness, shall fade away
Like vernal blossoms. From the conqueror's hand
The sceptre and the sword shall pass away;
The mighty ones of earth shall lay them down
In their low beds, and Death shall set his seal
On Beauty's marble brow, and cold and pale,
Bloomless and voiceless, shall the lovely ones
Go to the “congregation of the dead.”

Yea, more than this: the mighty rocks that lift
Their solemn forms upon the mountain heights,
Like time's proud citadels, to bear the storms
And wrecks of ages,—these, too, shall decay,
And Desolation's icy hand shall wave
O'er all that thou canst see; blot out the suns
That shed their glory o'er uncounted worlds;
Call in the distant comets from their wild
And devious course, and bid them cease to move;
And clothe the heavens in darkness. But the power
Of God, his goodness, and his grace, shall be
Unchanged, when all the worlds that he hath made
Have ceased their revolutions. When the suns
That burn in yonder sky have poured their last,
Their dying glory o'er the remains of space,
Still, God shall be the same, the same in love,
In majesty, in mercy: then rely
In faith on him, and thou shalt never find
Hope disappointed, or reliance vain.