Look Up

Christian, lookup? thy feet may slide;         This is a slippery way!     Yet One is walking by thy side         Whose arm should be thy stay,     Thou canst not see that blessed form,         Nor view that loving smile     With eager eyes thus earthward bent -         Christian, look up a while!     Christian, look up! - what seest thou here         To court thy anxious eyes?     Earth is beneath thee, lone and drear,         Above, thy native skies!     Beneath, the wreck of faded bloom,         The shadow, and the clod,     The broken reed, the open tomb, -         Above thee, is THY GOD!     Look up! thy head too long has been         Bowed darkly toward the earth,     Thou son of a most Royal Sire,         Creature of kingly birth!     What! dragging like a very slave         Earth's heavy galling chain, -     And struggling onward to the grave         In weariness and pain?     What wouldst thou with this world? - thy home,         Thy country is not here,     'Mid faded flowers, and perished bloom,         And shadows dense and drear! -     Thy home is where the tree of Life         Waves high its fruitage blest,     'Mid bowers with fadeless beauties rife, -         Look up, and claim thy rest!