Zoroaster.

I.     The light of a new day was on his brow,     The faith of a great dawn was on his tongue;     Out of the dark he raised his voice and sung     The high Messiah who should overthrow     The gods that Superstition crowned with might     And set above the world,--the coming Christ     Whose unshed blood should be the holy tryst     'Twixt man and his lost Eden, washing white     From his rebellious soul the serpent's blight.     II.     The fire that on the Magi's altars glowed     Spake to his soul in symbols and expressed     The immortal purity that without rest     Strives with the mortal grossness whose abode     Is in the heart. Their symboled fire showed One     Whose spirit on the altar of the world     Burns ceaselessly,--where, if all vice be hurled,     It shall be purged with fire that shall atone,--     Christ's love the flame, man's sin th' alchemic stone.     III.     The light of a new day was on his brow,     The faith of a great dawn was on his tongue;     Above the old Chaldean myths he sung     The message of the peace that men should know     Through God's own Son. Out of the hopeless night     He saw the star of Bethlehem arise,     And o'er the wasted gates of Paradise     Beheld it mount, and heard, to hail its light,     The everlasting groan of hell's despite.