Signs of Earth's Unrest and Coming Judgment
HAVE the thunders ceased to hurtle
Through the dim and lurid sky?
Are the hands of nations clasped
In perennial amity? Has the dawn of glory, sighed for
By the poet and the sage,
Ushered in the tearless morning
Of an endless, happy age? Has the sea of earth’s commotion
Lulled in ever-during calm?
Shall the nations rest in peace
In the shadow of the palm? Has, to dwell in darksome cavern,
War, the demon, fled confounded,
And the jubilee of mankind
Over hill and valley sounded? No! the voice of murder shrieks
Through the solitude and city;
No! beside the couch of death
Wails the tender voice of pity; No! in echoes terrible,
Voice to voice responsive rings
From the smoldering plains of Poland,
From the congress of the kings; No! resounds the throbbing West
From its rocky heights and llanos;
No! reply the leaping fire-gleams
From a hundred hushed volcanoes. Soon the hypocrite shall see
Falsehood’s refuge overflowed,
For the heavy cloud of judgment
Quivers with its thunder loud. Soon with messages of woe,
Europe’s telegraphs shall tremble;
Soon in battle’s dark array
Armageddon’s hosts assemble; Marshaled soon beneath his banner,
Antichrist’s vast armies be,
Like the hissing, heaving billows
Of a dark and surging sea. Climb the watch-tower, O believer!
Take the telescope in hand,
And the glimmering horizon
Of the Orient sky command; There, beyond the brooding darkness,
There, beyond the ocean strife,
Thou shalt catch a streak of radiance,
Herald of a world’s new life, When the blooms of paradise
Once again shall scent our clime,
And the storm and mist forever
Vanish from the hills of time, When from a descending city,
Angel melodies shall ring,
Hill and valley shout, Hosannah!
Glory to the coming King!