Choice Specimens of American Literature, and Literary Reader · Chapter 292=372.= What the Voice Said
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Maddened by Earth's wrong and evil, "Lord," I cried in sudden ire, "From thy right hand, clothed with thunder, Shake the bolted fire!
"Love is lost, and Faith is dying; With the brute, the man is sold; And the dropping blood of labor Hardens into gold."
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"Thou, the patient Heaven upbraiding," Spake a solemn Voice within; "Weary of our Lord's forbearance, Art thou free from sin?"
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"Earnest words must needs be spoken When the warm heart bleeds or burns With its scorn of wrong, or pity For the wronged, by turns.
"But, by all thy nature's weakness, Hidden faults and follies known, Be thou, in rebuking evil, Conscious of thine own.
"Not the less shall stern-eyed Duty To thy lips her trumpet set, But with harsher blasts shall mingle Wailings of regret."
Cease not, Voice of holy speaking, Teacher sent of God, be near, Whispering through the day's cool silence, Let my spirit hear!
So, when thoughts of evil doers Waken scorn, or hatred move, Shall a mournful fellow-feeling Temper all with love.
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From "The Tent on the Beach."