Tartarus

While in my simple gospel creed     That "God is Love" so plain I read,     Shall dreams of heathen birth affright     My pathway through the coming night?     Ah, Lord of life, though spectres pale     Fill with their threats the shadowy vale,     With Thee my faltering steps to aid,     How can I dare to be afraid?     Shall mouldering page or fading scroll     Outface the charter of the soul?     Shall priesthood's palsied arm protect     The wrong our human hearts reject,     And smite the lips whose shuddering cry     Proclaims a cruel creed a lie?     The wizard's rope we disallow     Was justice once, - is murder now!     Is there a world of blank despair,     And dwells the Omnipresent there?     Does He behold with smile serene     The shows of that unending scene,     Where sleepless, hopeless anguish lies,     And, ever dying, never dies?     Say, does He hear the sufferer's groan,     And is that child of wrath his own?     O mortal, wavering in thy trust,     Lift thy pale forehead from the dust!     The mists that cloud thy darkened eyes     Fade ere they reach the o'erarching skies     When the blind heralds of despair     Would bid thee doubt a Father's care,     Look up from earth, and read above     On heaven's blue tablet, GOD IS LOVE!