Classic Poem

Day shall succeed to night no more,
No spring shall winter's waste restore,
The moon and stars shall fade away;
And ev'n the sun himself decay;
Whate'er we see, the earth, the sky,
Shall in one gen'ral ruin ly;
From nothing all arose, and all
Again shall into nothing fall:
Secure of death, the soul sublime
Alone defies the wrecks of time,
And, 'midst the ruins of its frame,
From changes free, remains the same.
Man know, howe'er defac'd by sin
Thou hast a spark of God within,
A spark of the eternal fire,
That ne'er shall languish or expire;
Man, know thyself secure of fate,
Which waits all else of mortal state,
To thee is an existence giv'n
Coeval with the age of heav'n:
The soul, freed from the chains of earth,
Shall go to him who gave it birth,
And through the tomb the passage lies,
That leads to glory in the skies.

Lord, teach me, tenant of the earth,
Humble in thought and speech to be,
But mindful of my heav'nly birth,
To act as one ally'd to thee.