God's Providence is rigid law
Not chance, nor miracle, nor fate,
The Must Be which His Seer favors
Comes surely, though we work & wait.
A Life unseen pervades the air
And unifies the subject Soul—
A Spirit flowing everywhere
That wafts him to its hidden goal.
The brave Precursor, wise & strong,
Whose light accelerates the Dawn
Himself the while is driven along
From pulses from the World-Heart drawn.
He feels a Purpose stealing in,
He knows not whence, & heeds not why,
But straightaway, all his thoughts begin
To shape the epic of the sky.
Contending for the boon he sees,
He puts the loyal heavens in bond,—
Orion and the Pleiades
Joint pledges he shall not despond.
A kiss to all the sons of earth
Who kept their heritage of Heaven
He glorifies his mortal birth
By graces God above hath given.
The rebel spirits who reside
In nature’s unredeemed from Self
Are round him, gross & evil-eyed
Less humanized than gnome & elf.
The gibbering of their alien crew
He hears undaunted, as he speeds
Right on, his chosen work to do
For justice, truth, & human needs.
A faithful soul he stands alone
Amid the clamor of revolt;
His hand upon the Eternal Throne,—
And calmly wiats the foe’s assault.
Or, waiting not, attacks the swarm
Of evils barking in fully sway [??]
His Red-cross banner of Reform
A meteor blazing on the sky.
The serpent lie that hisses [?] & creeps
In some unguarded Fellowship,
He hunts out while the Warder keeps
And smites it with his lightning whip!
The martyr souls who died for truth,
With him allied in soul & aim,
Exalted to immortal youth,—
Now share with him their deathless fame.
A warrior, but a brother still,
He sings the canticles of love,
And o’er the shattered towers of Ill
Mounts regnant to the Choir above!
All faithful souls go where they may,
Move side by side to each event [on action bent]
Like star-world in the Milky Way
Their glory in one halo blest.
George Shepard Burleigh
Clara Barton
The Elect Reformer