The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1848-01-07
FRIDAY, JANULRY 7, 1913.
portrp.
TIE IkEEORNIER.

THE REFORMER.
by JOHN GREESLEAr WHITTIER.
A u grim and soiled and brown with tan,
saw strong One, in his wrath,
Shifting the goddess shrine of man
Along his path.
The Church beneath her trembling dome
Essayed in vain her ghostly charm;
Wealth shook within his gilded home
With pale alarm.
Fraud from his secret chamber fled
Before the sunlight bursting in;
Sloth drew her pillow DER her head
10 drown the din.
"Spare," Art implored, "yon holy pile;
That grand, old, time. worn turret spare
Meek Reverence, kneeling in the aisle,
Cried out, "Forbearw
Gray-bearded Use, who, deaf and blind,
! CROPPED for his old accustomed stone,
Leaned on bis staff, and wept, TO find
His seat o'erthrown.
Young Romance raised his dreamy eyes,
O'erhung with paly locks Of gold,
"Why smite," he asked, in sad surprise,
.'The fair, the old"
Yet louder rang the Strong Ones stroke,
! Yet nearer hash'd his axes CLEAN,
Shuddering and sick of heart | woke,
As from dream.
| looked: aside the dust cloud rolled
The Waster seemed the Builder too;
, Cp-springing from the ruined Old
| saw the New.
Twas but the ruin of the bad
! The wasting of the wrong and i'll;
Whate'er Of good the old time had
NNsGsihg still.
Calm SSHc brows of him feared;
r. Tie: 6oheAwh awed me passed away,
And ieftbehind smile which cheered
Like breaking day.
Green grew the grain on battle. plains,
O'er swarded war-mounds grazed the COW
The slave stood forging from his chains,
The spade and plow.
Where frowned the fort, pavilions gay
And cottage windows, flower entwined,
Looked out upon the peaceful bay
And hills behind.
Through vine wrcaihed cups with wine once
red,
The lights on brimmins crystal fell,
Drawn, sparkling, from the rivulet head
And messy well.
| Through prison walls like Heaven sent hone
Fresh breezes blew, and sunbeams strayed
And with idle gallows-ropc
The yonng child played.
Where the doomed victim in his cell
Had counted DER the weary hours,
Glad school girls answering TO the bell,
Came crowned with flowers.
Grown wiser from the lesson given,
fear no longer, for know
HAT, where the share is deepest driven,
The best fruits grow.
The ou.worn right, the old abuse,
The piouS fraud transparent grown,
The good held captive in the use
OF Wrong alone
These wait their doom, from that great law.
Which makes the past time serve to-day
And tre>her lie the World shall draw
From their decay.
Oh! bockwaTd-lool;ing son Of time =
The new is old, the old is new,
The cycle Of change sublime
Still sweeping through.
t So wisely taught the Indian seer;
= Destroying Seva, forming Brahm.
Who wake by turns Earth's love aud fear,
Are one, the same.
As idly as in that old day
Thou monrneSt, didst thy sires repine,
So, in his time, thy child grown grey,
Shall sigh for thine.
, Yet not the less for them or thou
The eternal step of Progress beats,
{ To that great anthem. calm aud slow,
Which God rcpcals
, Take art!-Thc WaSter builds agaiu-
\ charmed life old goodness hath:
The tareS may pcriSh-but the grain
Is not for death.
Q God works in all things; all obey
A His first propulsion from the night;
( llo, wake the watch.-the world is gray,
. With morning light!