Prophet of God, arise and take

With thee the words of wrath divine,

The scourge of Heaven, to shake

O’er yon apostate shrine.

Where Angels down the lucid stair

Came hovering to our sainted sires

Now, in the twilight, glare

The heathen’s wizard fires.

Go, with thy voice the altar rend,

Scatter the ashes, be the arm,

That idols would befriend,

Shrunk at thy withering charm.

Then turn thee, for thy time is short,

But trace not o’er the former way,

Lest idol pleasures court

Thy heedless soul astray.

Thou know’st how hard to hurry by,

Where on the lonely woodland road

Beneath the moonlight sky

The festal warblings flow’d;

Where maidens to the Queen of Heaven

Wove the gay dance round oak or palm,

Or breath’d their vows at even

In hymns as soft as balm.

Or thee, perchance, a darker spell

Enthralls: the smooth stones of the flood,⁷⁸⁷⁸Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion; they, they are thy lot. Isaiah lvii. 6.

By mountain grot or fell,

Pollute with infant’s blood;

The giant altar on the rock,

The cavern whence the timbrel’s call

Affrights the wandering flock: —

Thou long’st to search them all.

Trust not the dangerous path again —

O forward step and lingering will!

O lov’d and warn’d in vain!

And wilt thou perish still?

Thy message given, thine home in sight,

To the forbidden feast return?

Yield to the false delight

Thy better soul could spurn?

Alas, my brother! round thy tomb

In sorrow kneeling, and in fear,

We read the Pastor’s doom

Who speaks and will not hear.

The grey-hair’d saint may fail at last,

The surest guide a wanderer prove;

Death only binds us fast

To the bright shore of love.