LINES FOR THE TIMES

HO! fellow workmen, one and all,
In mill and mine, or lanes of traffic,
Behold the Hand upon the wall!
The mystic writing, terse and graphic.
The priceless heritage we hold
Slips through our hands to foes and strangers,
While Honor trades for place or gold,
And Freedom kneels to money changers.

The stern, true way the Fathers taught
Has passed away with those who taught it.
The honor they so dearly bought
Rests in the grave, with those who bought it.
We retrograde thro’ each decade,
The statesman sinks to politician.
We mark with sordid lines of trade
The caste of plebeian or patrician.

We teach the nation’s youth to wade
In moral filth of sharp finessing;
That Godliness is thrifty trade,
And sudden wealth the chiefest blessing.
The trickster and the shameless guile,
With brazen frauds and lying faces,
Disgrace the nation’s forum; while
Corruption rules in highest places.

Alas, there is no God but gold;
No good, save riches or position.
Our chosen ones are bought and sold,
Their names sink down to swift perdition.
They laugh the pilgrim sires to scorn;
On every sea their ships are sailing.
So that they win the oil and corn,
What though the grand old cause be failing?

The gifts that time has held in store;
The wisdom governed by the sages;
The treasured wealth of ancient lore,
We hold in trust for future ages.
The gifts are laid before our eyes,
The riches wait for us to use them.
To take, if we be strong and wise,
If weak and trifling, to refuse them.

If we, whose sinews pay for all,
Through weak defense, ill-timed and aimless,
Allow our cause to go in thrall
Shall coming ages hold us blameless?
We have the lesson taught by Rome,
The more our shame that we should need it.
The application lies at home—
The better for us if we heed it.

What if the garnered wealth and lore
Be dowered on souls that shun and flee them?
Or godlike gems and diadems
Be held to eyes that will not see them?
We have the right: we have the might:
The rhyme is meet for the occasion.
Who seeks the light shall see the light—
Who shuns it woos his own damnation.