Springfield Republican

MAN.
By H. Hastings Weld,

"Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons."—Acts x. 34.

Say, what is wealth? A gilded pain:
And what is power? A weakness hid:
And what is life? A shadow vain:
And joy? A phantom still forbid:
Shall, then, proud man his grandeur ward
By toys which God doth not regard?

And what is man? In outward guise
Let him be prince, or peer, or slave,
Or, poor and weak, or great and wise—
A mortal tending to the grave:
Such are all men, from earth we came—
Earth doth her own poor dust reclaim.

And what is want? 'Tis virtue's test:
What weakness? An escape from pride:
That life on earth may be the best,
In which by grief the soul is tried;
For He whose word is ever sure,
Hath said that "Blessed are the poor."

But what is man? Since God, who made
The stars, is mindful of his fate.
When from the skies the stars shall fade
He will our bodies new create:
And mortal serf and monarch must
Arise immortal from the dust.

Call not his hand unequal then,
Who to the station fits the mind.
And 'mid the different ranks of men
Ordains that each his trial find;
One soul to save—one God to adore—
The humblest have—the great no more.

Joy has its griefs, and pain its joys—
Each man lives in his proper sphere
Each with his state his mind employs,
And all are but sojourners here:
Then let no foolish mortal pride
Despise one soul for whom Christ died.

Each has his daily task to do—
And life itself is but a day:
The "Day's Work Ended," God shall view
And in His own just balance weigh
Our every thought and deed He scans,
Whose ways and thoughts are not as man's.