Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1859-01-29
THE PROPHECY OF SAMUEL SEWALL.-
A. u. 1907.

THE PROPHECY OF SAMUEL sEwALL.-
A. D. 1907.
Up and down the village streets
Strange are the firms my fancy meets,
For the thoughts and things of to-day are hid,
And, through the veil of a closed lid,
The ancient worthless | see again.
l hear the tap of the elders cano,
And his awful periwig see,
the silver buckles Of shoe and knee.
Stately and slow with though full air,
His black cap hiding his whitened hair,
Walks tho Judge of the Great Assize,
Sewall the coed and wise.
His face with lines of frmness wrought,
He wears the look Of a man unbought,
Who swears to his hurt and changes not
Yet, touched and softened nevertheless
With the grace of Christian gentleness =
The face that a child would climo to kiss.
True, aud tender, and brave, and just,
That man might honor and woman trust!-
Touching and sad, a tale is told,
Like a p~enitent hymn of the Psalmist old,
OF the fast which the good man lifelong kept
With a haunting sorrow that never slept,
AS the ciTcling year brought round the ii ne,
Of an error that left the sting of crime,
When he sat il the Witchcraft courts,
With the laws of Moses and Hale's Reports,
And spake, in the name of both, tho word
That gave the witch's neck to the cord.
And piled the oakon planks that pressed
The feeble life from the warlock's breast!
All the day long from dawn to'dawn
His door was bolted, his curtain drawn,
No foot on his silent threshold trod,
No eye looked on him save that of God.
AS he bafled the ghosts Of the dead with charm
Of penitent tears. and prayers, and psalms,
And with precious proofs from the sacred Word
Of the boundless pity and love of the Lord,
His faith confirmed and his trust renewed
That the sin of his ignorance, sorely rued,
Might be washed away in the mingled flood
Of his human sorrow and Christ's dear blood
Green forever the memory De
OF the Judge Of the old Theocracy,
Whom even his errors %glorifed,
Like a far seen, sunlit mountain side,
By the cloudy shadows which GER it glide
Honor and praise to the Puritan
Who the hating step Of his age outran,
And, seeing the initiate worth Of man
In tie priceless gift the Father gave,
In the infinite love that stopped to save,
Dared not brand his brother a slave
who doth such wrong" he was wont to say
3 In his own quaint picturoloving way,
Filings up to Heaven a hand grenade
Which God shall cast down upon his head :"
u Widely as heaven and He'll contrast
' That brave old jurist of the past
And the cunning triekster and knave of courts
0 Who the holy features of Truth d~istorts.
Ruling as right the will Of the strong,
= Poverty crime, and weakness wrong,
Wide cared to power, to the wronged and weak
Deaf as Egypt's gods OF leek
7 S%cofiug aside, at party's nod,
' Order of Nature and law of God;
; For whose dabbled ermine respect were waste,
Reverence folly, and awe misplaced
q Justice of whom 'twere vain to seek
" As from Koordish robber or Syrian Sheik!
Oh leave the wretch to his brides and sins,
Lot him rot in the web of lies he spins !
d 70 the sanity soul Of the early day,
e To the Christian judge, let us turn and say:
u Nbahho v Ill uOhCS Iuuu
Glory to God for the Puritan !"
D. see. far southwark, this quiet day,
The hills of Newbury rolling away.
With the many tints of the season gay,
IS Dreamily blending. in autumn mist,
TIMBER. and gold, and amethyst.
n Long and low with dwarf trees crowned,
Plum leland lies like a whale aground,
= A stones toss over the narrow sound.
Inland, as far as the eye can go,
le The hills curve round like a Bonded bow
s. A silver arrow from out them sprung
g. l see the shine of the Quasycung;
And. round and round over valley and hill,
Old roads winding. as old roads will,
Here to a ferry and there to a mill,
b And, g~liwpses Of chimnoys and gabled caves