THE MESSAGE OF SETH. AN ORIENTAL TRADITION. BY DELTA. I. PROSTRATE upon his couch of yellow leaves, In purity's own robes when garmented, Where fruits and flowers hung temptingly o'erhead, Eden's blue streams he traced, by bliss ecstatic led. II. Before him still, in the far distance seen, Living in sight of Heaven made Earth a Hell; Spake of the guardian sword aye flickering to and fro— III. The fiery sword that, high above the trees, Flashed awful threatenings from the angel's hand, Who kept the gates and guarded:-nigh to these, A hopeless exile, Adam loved to stand Wistful, or roamed to catch a breeze that fanned The ambrosial blooms, and wafted perfume thence, As 'twere sweet tidings from a distant land No more to be beheld; for Penitence, However deep it be, brings back not Innocence. IV. Thus had it been through weary years, wherein Propping his father's head, in tenderness hung Seth. V. "Seth, dearest Seth," 'twas thus the father said, "Thou know'st-ah! better none, for thou hast been A pillow to this else forsaken head, And made, if love could make, life's desert green— The dangers I have braved, the ills unseen, The weariness and woe, that, round my feet, Lay even as fowlers' nets; and how the wrath Strewed briars and thorns along each rugged path:Yet deem not that this Night no hope of Morning hath. VI. "On darkness Dawn will break; and, as the gloom The penitential prostrate from the dust, And be the help of all who put in Him their trust. VII. "Know then, that day, as sad from Eden's home For man hath been provided, which shall free From death his doom-yea, gain lost Eden back to thee. VIII. "Although thy disobedience hath brought down The wrath of justice; and the penalty Are pangs by sickness brought, and misery's frown, And toil-and, finally, that thou shalt die; Yet will I help in thine extremity. In the mid garden, as thou know'st, there grows The Tree of Life, and thence shall preciously, One day, an oil distil, of power to close Sin's bleeding wounds, and soothe man's sorrows to repose. IX. "That promise hath been since a star of light, When stumbled on the mountains dark my feet; X. "Thine errand to the Angel tell, and He (Fear not, he knows that edict from the Throne) Fitful, now deems it day, and now is quenched in night." XI. Seth heard; and like a swift, fond bird he flew, With sudden lightning, which around him showered, XII. And in his ear and on his heart was poured, Returned; and of his voice the faltering tone, Meeting the listener's ear, scarce made its purpose known. XIII. "Beloved father!" thus 'twas through his grief Wells now the promised balsam from Life's Tree. Ere that day dawn; but Thou its beams shalt hail, And earth give up its dead, and Life o'er Death prevail. XIV. "Astounding are the visions I have seen: The clouds took shapes, and turned them into trees Passed to the dust, on which tears fell like rain ; XV. "And the wide waters rose above the tops Of the high hills, and all looked desolate- In heaven; and there were wanderings to and fro; Tables, by God's own finger written, show The Law by which He wills the world should walk below: XVI. "And ever passed before me clouds of change, Whose figures rose, and brightened, and declined; And, melting into vapours, left behind No trace; and, as to silence sank the wind, Appeared in heaven a beautiful bright star, Under whose beams an Infant lay reclined; And all the wheels of nature ceased their jar, And choiring angels hymned that Presence from afar. XVII. "And then, methought, upon a mountain stood It streamed, until the desert ceased to know Passed in their darkness from the noon; and lo! Even backwards flowed that brightness to this day, And, Father, showed me thee, encircled by its ray : XVIII. "It showed me thee, from whom mankind had birth, XIX. "A long, long future, freaked with sin and strife, "Freely then I go, For steadfast is the Lord his word to keep,' Said Adam, as his breathing, faint and slow, Ceased; and like zephyr dying on the deep, In hope matured to faith, the First Man fell asleep! THE VOICE OF NATURE. "Twas in a lone sequestered dell, For never sun more blithely rose To light a scene more fairDay never had so sweet a close, Or night a charm so rare. And I have climbed the rocky steep I gaze on many a stately dome On many a low and humble home But all are wrapt in deep repose, Unmarked, the stream of life glides on And this, to me, is as a spell That binds me to the night- There are who say this wondrous world That senseless atoms blindly grew O Man, with aspirations high, Are all the wonders prophets told Shall love and virtue live on earth, Shall faith, and hope, and stainless worth, Come forth, thou false and subtle sage! Cast off the gathering mists of age, Throw down, throw down the guilty pen- At morn, at noon, or sacred eve, The lightest sound thy step may leave Come tread with me this dizzy height, And, through this waste of air, Gaze out upon the forms of nightWhat is thine answer there? The moonlit fields of waving corn, All speak of His unbounded love Who caused those streams to flow, Who fed those fields from founts above, And made the harvest grow. And wheresoe'er the broad moon's rays There's not a plant upon the earth, The very leaf on which you tread Was wrought with wondrous hand,A fragment of a volume dread That speaks to every land: A book unchanged from age to age- CHARLES WILTON. |