Stoic[150] spoke of constancy, 239
Of magnanimity, which raised the soul
Above all mortal change; of Jove's high will;
Of fate;--and here the master,[151] from the schools
Of human wisdom, to his votaries,
Spoke of the life of man but as the flower
Blooming to fade and die; alas! to die,
And never bloom again! Vain argument!
'Twas on that hill, named of the fabled lord
Of battle and of blood,[152] amid the shrines
And altars of the Grecian deities,
Before the temple of the Parthenon,[153] 250
That shone, on this illustrious hill, aloft,
And as supreme o'er all the lesser fanes,
Fronting the proud proficients in the code
Of such vain wisdom, vain philosophy,
Fearless amid this scene of earthly pomp,
Eloquent, ardent, and inspired by Heaven,
The loved Apostle stood. With look upraised,
And hands uplifted, he spoke fervently;
Spoke of that God, whose altar he had marked,
"The unknown God," who dwelleth not on earth, 260
In temples made with hands, but in the heavens,
'Mid inaccessible and glorious light.
In Him we live and move; He giveth life,
And breath, and all things. Him alone behoves
To worship and adore with prayer and praise.
That God is now revealed, who, by his Son,
Shall judge the world in righteousness, when earth
And heaven shall pass away; when the last trump 268
Shall sound above the graves of all who sleep;
When all who sleep, and all who are alive,
Shall be caught up together in the clouds,
To stand before the judgment-seat of Him
Whom God appointed Judge; who shall descend
From heaven, with a shout, and with the voice
Of the Archangel, and the trump of God,
While sun, and moon, and stars, are blotted out,
And perish as a scroll!
As Paul thus spoke--
Spoke of the resurrection of the dead--
'Mid the proud fanes of pagan deities, 280
At Athens, the stern Stoic mocked; the flowers
Seemed withering on the brow of that fair youth,
Whom Epicurus taught that life was brief,
Brief as those flowers which in the garden bloom
Of that philosopher of earthly bliss.[154]
And what the moral? Let us eat and drink,
For we to-morrow die. Oh! heartless creed!
Far other lessons Christ's Apostle taught,
Of faith, of hope, of judg