SATAN’S POWER TO RULE by GEO. E. PRICE

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 18, 1897

SATAN’S POWER TO RULE.

By GEO. E. PRICE

He long has studied all the secret ways Of nature, and her laboratories yield To him their subtle powers as God allows. He is permitted, and the deep dark sea Lashed to an awful fury is the pipe That tidal wave and fierce tornado play To welcome thus their king. The shrieks of men That in their gallant vessels go ashore Or founder out at sea make concord sweet To Satan and his band—“harmonious wo!” Atlanta hears and Boston and St. John, And merchants mourn their cargoes or their hulks, And wives and mothers shudder on their beds As round their homes the furious tempest roars What then at sea? and in the awful gulf O’er which they work? For do thou know, blind bard,

’Tis almost as it were the one mistake Of thy grand beauteous song that Satan’s throne And kingdom ’mid the burning penal flames And torments of a far-off hell are laid? But as a poet’s thought we will forgive A fancy suited not to this dull tale. His chariot is the plague, and oft he rides Roughshod o’er millions in triumphant march; His throne, the smoke of war, and for his laws The doctrines and debasing habits vile That he has saddled on a captive race.

GEO. E. PRICE.