The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-07-24

Mark the climax, ''grand, true, i'm
portant,' and see how the idea of as
cent is stated in the line, Ascending
up on high" To ascend is to go up, to
go up is to ascend, and to go ''on high''
is to ascend and go up, but when the
singer ascends up on high, in one short
line, he is tolerably certain to get
therel' And yet, in spite of its rhet-
oric, what reader can fail to enjoy the
hymn?
And here is tolerably strong indict-
ment, evidently sung at the partialist
shepherds, and well intended to assure
the ''little flock" that sung:
Ye labor night and day
To lay up wealth in store;
My sheep are made prey,
To feed yourselves the more.
With cruel arm their fleece ye take,
And garments make to keep you warm
The sick ye have not heard,
Nor comforted the dams;
Nor brought into the field
The poor, bewildered lambs.
With cruel force We have them ruld,
And also schoold, to make them worse.
Like as shepherd kind,
I'll look for all my sheep;
And ev'ry one find
will in safety keep.
The wolf or bear within the fold,
Or lion bold, shall ne'er come there.
The lost shall all be found,
The sent away calrd in;
The sick and lame made sound,
The filthy ones made clean. i.
Thus saith the Lord, MY flock are men,
promise them. am their God.
The four stanzas quoted give good
idea of the eight which no doubt, on
occasion, the music loving Scotch rem
dered with the spirit and the under
standing also.
And surely it would be difficult to
put into prose "a more direct and argu-
mentative statement of the substance
of the following rhymes. l fear we
must say of it as Mr.. Mac Allister said
to Mr.. Johnson in their famous rhym-
ing contest. Said johnson:
"Mr. Mac Allister,
! kissed your sister,
To which Mr.. Mac Allister replied:
"Mr. Johnson.
kissed your wife,
"But," said the former, "that is not
poetry" "Never mind that" said he,
" it is true :" There is certainly more
truth than poetry in the following:
As Deity has stamp'd on man
His nature and his name,
There's no inferior which can
Eradicate the same.
If man be really so deprav'd
AS some have understood
There's nothing in him to be sav'd,
Since nothing there is good.
For in that Book Jehovah gave
never yet could find
That it was his design to save
The fieshly, carnal mind.
But in this plain. revealed will,
He teaches me 10 know,
The filthy must be filthy still,''
q bnd TO ueStfuctlOn go.
What though on earth the heavenly
grain
May grow with chaff awhile;
Gods power will separate again
The precious from the vile.
When thorns which grow in natures
field
Are all consum'd with fire,
The soil will then the owner yield
The fruit he would desire.
The sacred part to God allied,
He never will destroy;
When in the fire of love tits try'd,
'Tis pure without alloy.
But all the stubble. wood and dross,
Are food for heavenly fire;
The earthly man shall suffer loss,
And all his hopes expire.
The fire of love shall sin o'ercome,
Shall death and hell destroy,
And bring the soul in triumph home,
To dwell in realms of joy.
And since have been made to know
And feel this conquering love,
1t constitutes my heaven below,
And hope of heaven above.
These stanzas are not little poetical:
When DER the equatorial way
The suns bright car is driven,
Then equal night and equal day
Are to each country given.
Fair emblem of that love divine,
Whose rich. impartial grace
Shall in its boundless grasp entwine
The whole of Adams race.
The reader must not be too particular
to inquire what sort of grasp a bound
less one is, nor how a grasp that was
boundless could entwine around the hui
man race, nor how equal night and equal
day resemble bOundless grasp; but of
these two stanzas it may be said that,
unlike those before referred to, they
are poetical if not true exactly.
The sentimentality of the following,
and the frequently incongruous ideas,
are apparent, and yet the spirit of it is
admirable, and the uncultivated reader
or singer must have found it moving
and stirring. And even the critical
not too eritieal-reader will be not a
little taken with its unique strain: