Fame.

Oh ye! who all life's energies combine     The fadeless laurel round your brows to twine,     Pause but one moment in your brief career,     Nor seek for glory in a mortal sphere.     Can figures traced upon the shifting sand     Washed by the mighty tide, its force withstand?     Time's stern resistless torrent onward flows,     The restless waves above your labours close,     And He who bids the bounding billows roll     Sweeps out the feeble record from the soul.         The glorious hues that flush the evening sky     Melt into night, and on her bosom die;     Through the wide fields of heaven's immensity     The gold-tipped billows of that crimson sea     Flash on the awe-struck gazer's dazzled sight,     The rich out-gushings from the fount of light;     Yet oft, concealed beneath that splendid form,     We hail the herald of the coming storm;     The fiery spirit over half a globe     Spreads the bright tissue of his beamy robe,     And, ere the day-king veils his glowing crest,     Shrouds the dark tempest in his burning vest;     O'er earth and heaven his gorgeous banner flings,     And gilds with borrowed light his sable wings--     And those who view with rapture-lifted eyes     The short-lived pageant of the summer skies,     Behold it vanish like a fearful dream,     And death and desolation mar its beam.     So when we seek above life's sea of tears     To raise a monument for future years,     If built on earth the fabric will decay,     Oblivion's hand will sweep the pile away;     The proudest trophies of the mightiest mind     Fade in her grasp, nor leave a wreck behind;     She o'er earth's ruins spreads her misty pall,     And time's unsparing ocean swallows all;     Hope for a moment gilds the spoiler's shroud,     As parting sunbeams tinge the lurid cloud;     The transient glory cheats the gazer's sight;     The storm rolls on--'tis universal night!         Say did not man inherit, at his birth,     A higher promise than the things of earth;     Views more exalted than this world can give,     And hopes that, deathless as the soul, outlive     The wreck of nature, and the common doom     That hourly sweeps her myriads to the tomb?     His mental powers, unfettered by the clod,     Soar o'er time's gulf, and reach the throne of God.     Oh what a privilege it is to know     That death chains not the immortal soul below!     Through the dark portals of the grave upborne,     Leaving the care-worn sons of earth to mourn,     On wings of light the new-born spirit flies     To seek a home and kindred in the skies.         Oh what are earthly crowns and earthly bliss,     And pride's delusive dreams, compared with this?     Ambition's laurel, purchased with a flood     Of human tears and stained with kindred blood,     Once gained, converted to a crown of thorns,     Pierces the aching temples it adorns--     Not Sappho's lyre, nor Raphael's deathless art     Can twine the olive round the bleeding heart;     In heaven alone the promised blessing lies,     And those who seek--must seek it in the skies!     Seek it through Him who, humbling human pride,     Wept o'er man's fall, and for his ransom died;     Poured out his blood on the accursed tree,     To break the chain and set the captive free.     Heaven bowed its glory on the cross to teach     That greatness man's lost nature could not reach,     The true humility, which stoops to rise,     And, leaving earth, claims kindred with the skies.         How many pages have been blotted o'er     With heartfelt tears, that now are read no more;     And, like the eyes that long have ceased to weep,     In dust and darkness quite forgotten sleep!     Dead to the world as if they ne'er had been     The favoured actors in one little scene.     The scene is changed--and, like their fleeting-fame,     The fickle world adores another name.     They knew the price at which its praise was bought;     The glittering bauble was not worth a thought;     Yet, Esau like, a better birthright sold,     And for base counterfeit exchanged the gold!         Ere man presumptuously his genius boasts,     Let him reflect upon the countless hosts,     The untold myriads, of each age and clime,     That sleep forgotten in the grave of time.     What were their names! Go ask the silent sod     Their deeds--their record lives but with their God!     At every step we tread on kindred earth,     Nor know the spot that gave our fathers birth.     Oh! could we call before our wondering eyes     All that have lived--and bid the dead arise,     From the first moment the Creator spoke     The word of power, and light through darkness broke,     And see earth covered with the mighty tide     Of all who on her bosom lived and died,     What a stupendous thought would fill the soul     Could we behold life's breathing ocean roll     Its human billows onward--and the mass     The grave has swallowed, down from Adam, pass     In one unbroken stream--the brain would reel--     Lost in immensity, would cease to feel!     Whilst living, ah, how few were known to fame!     One in a million has not left a name,--     A single token, on life's shifting scene,     To tell to other years that such has been.     Yet man, unaided by a hope sublime,     Thinks that his puny arm can cope with time;     That his vast genius can reverse the doom,     And shed a deathless light upon his tomb;     That distant ages shall his worth admire,     And young hearts kindle at the sacred fire     Of him whose fame no envious clouds o'ercast,     Yet died forgotten and unknown at last.     Oh think not genius, with its hallowed light,     Can break the gloom of an eternal night;     For splendid talents often lead astray     The unguarded heart, and hide the narrow way,     While the unlearned and those of low estate,     With faith's clear eye behold the living gate,     Whose portals open on the shoreless sea     Where time's strong ocean meets eternity.     Across the gulf that stretches far beneath     Lies the dark valley of the shade of death--     A land of deep forgetfulness,--a shore     Which all must traverse, but return no more     To this sad earth, to dissipate our dread,     And tell the mighty secrets of the dead.     Enough for us that those drear realms were trod     By heavenly footsteps, that the Son of God     Passed the dark bourne and vanquished Death, to save     The weary wanderers of life's stormy wave.         Why then should man thus cleave to things of earth?     Daily experience proves their little worth--     Or waste those noble qualities of mind,     For wise and better purposes designed,     In the pursuit of trifles, which confer     No solid pleasure on their worshipper;     Or in the search of causes that are known     And guided by Omnipotence alone?     A height his finite reason cannot reach,     And all his boasted learning fails to teach?     While the bewildering thought overwhelms his brain,     Death comes to prove his speculations vain!         Is he deserving of a better doom     Who will not raise a hope beyond the tomb?     Who, quite enamoured with his fallen state,     Clings to the world and leaves the rest to fate;     Prefers corruption to his Maker's smile,     "And shuns the light because his deeds are vile?"     The man who feels the value of his soul,     Presses unwearied towards a higher goal;     Leaving this earth, he seeks a brighter prize,     And claims a crown immortal in the skies.     The child of pleasure may despise his aim,     And heap reproach upon the Christian's name,     May laugh his faith, as foolishness, to scorn:--     These by the man of God are meekly borne.     His glorious hope no infidel can shake;     He suffers calmly for his Saviour's sake.--         The world's poor votary seeks in vain for peace:     He cannot bid the voice of conscience cease     Its dire upbraidings; in his heartless course     He meets at every turn the fiend Remorse,     Who glares upon him with her tearless eye,     That sears his heart--but mocks its agony.     He hears that voice, amid the festive throng,     Speak in the dance and murmur in the song,     A death-bell, pealing in the midnight chime,     Whose awful tones proclaim the lapse of time,     And e'en the winged moments as they fly     Seem to proclaim--"Rash mortal, thou must die!     Soon must thou tread the path thy fathers trod,     And stand before the judgment-seat of God!"--     He hears--but seeks in pleasure's cup to drown     The dread that weighs his ardent spirit down;     Derides the warning voice in mercy sent;     Rejects the thought of after-punishment;     In folly's vortex wastes the spring of youth,     Nor, till death summons, owns the awful truth;     Feels it too late to calm the agonies     Remorse has kindled--and despairing, dies!         But in the breast where true religion reigns     There is a balm for all these mental pains;     A sweet contentment, felt, but undefined,     A full and free surrender of the mind     To its divine-original; a trust     Which lifts to heaven the dweller of the dust.     The pilgrim, glowing with a hope divine,     Counts not the distance to the heavenly shrine;     He meets with guardian spirits on the road,     Who cheer his steps and ease his heavy load.     Serenely journeying to a better clime     He does not shudder at the lapse of time;     But calmly drinks the cup of mortal woe,     And finds that peace the world cannot bestow;     That promised joy which brightens all beneath,     And smooths his pillow on the bed of death;     That perfect love which casteth out all fear,     And wafts his spirit to a happier sphere!--         Fame is a dream--the praise of man as brief     As morning dew upon the folded leaf;     The summer sun exhales the pearly tear,     And leaves no trace of its existence there.     Seek not for immortality below,     But fix your hopes beyond this vale of woe,     That when oblivion gathers round thy sod,     A lasting record may be found with God!--