A PICTURE OF THE LAST DAYS.
By Clyde Scott Chase
[“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, . . . unholy, without natural affection,” etc. 2 Tim. 3:1-3. “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature; and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman,” etc. Rom. 1:26, 27.] 'Tis said in proverb sweet and old,
And beautiful as light of morn,
That from the griefs and cares of life
The noble ones of earth are born;
That by the cruel blows of fate
Is wrought true tenderness of heart;
That poverty, disease, and woe
Do blessed sympathy impart. But now a shadow slowly floats
Across the sunlight of the past,
And o'er the earth in colors dark,
This picture of to-day is cast: The sea waves break upon the shore,
Wild billows that afar have rolled,
And bury deep, with worthless sand,
A wealth of purest shining gold. And souls amid life's stormy sea
Are driven like the wave-lashed shore,
And many a gleam of purest gold
Is buried deep to shine no more. As from the iron, glowing bright,
The spark beneath the hammer flies,
Until, in its new-beaten form,
Hardened and cold the metal lies, So many hearts with love o'erfilled,
Like metal in the workman's hands,
Become, 'neath fate's stern hammer blows,
Case-hardened as with iron bands. The misery of a hopeless age
Enwraps mankind within its folds;
And shadows of Gomorrah's vice
Bedim the luster of the soul,—
A vice that taints both great and small,
Unnatural, in its passion vile,
As pigments of Egyptian soil
Becloud the waters of the Nile. And, helpless in this midnight gloom,
As Satan's wrath is on us hurled,
We see no gleam of rescuing day
Till God creates anew the world.