| OCR Text |
Show 173 APPENDIX A him, ere (continued) APOSTAT.l THE I knew E Fragment. the roots of bitterness Had g r o wn to putrid Then Revelation's cancer in his light gleamed In strange fantastic He saw the 0' soul. er his mind dreams of future bliss; dawn, and this was quite enough For speculation's visionary claim. Precocious, in a day from childhood to A man, he grew a g i a nt of his kind; Until his head wa s in the clouds, and there He saw All knowledge, The the myst' ri s it ere knotty points in of the aerial world! was revealed, Scripture he knew. he could solve, By presto touch of talismanic wand, And, Patriarch like, had the discerning gift To know the ancient seeds of Israel's race. The spirits of all men he could discern, And oft, through speculation's vain conceit, He did interpret, to indignation, And raised the fouler passions of a few; While some admired, in sycophantic phrase, That made the humbler of the Saints to blush. The Gathering was his constant theme; for he Had dreamed of golden gates, and pearly walls, And palaces, and ghostly saints at ease Reclining' neath the palm -tree's shade at noon. And so he left, to seek this fairy land Uncounselled, in his own imaginings. But ah! he thought no the fiery path Where persecution, poverty, and death, Await the just, ere they can sing the song Of ransom'd ones, by suffering perfect made. 1 John Lyon, 1853), 53-56. The Harp of Zion (Liverpool: S. W. Richards, |
