P6 M5~^ VfitLi^S , t .1, ? lUL.^&^ff OF TM-F /^^y^PLC^ 5 l-^S^^ 4L155 , ^ .L, > 11.1.1^^^ t>P 7H-E r^nr^PLC^ Copyright, 1891, by Edw. L. Fales. ^' PILLARS OF THE TEMPLE. ^ EDWARD LIPPITT FALES, ST. PAUL, MINN. When, from the darkness where it germinates. The babe is brought to hght, and hfe's first veil Is torn aside by tender, skillful hands, The unaccustomed orbs of sight are dazed And for a time the world is indistinct. With lights and shades in meaningless arra}^ But this environment soon forms, and hints Hereditary lend the mind their aid. With flash of jewels and caressing tones. To learn the beauty of surrounding lights. A spoon of silvery sheen — a ribbon bright Whose crimson-fluttering pennon seems to be The ensign of existence — glowing lamps That lure the little fingers as a torch Beguiles the insects of the night — and then That strange, mysterious firelight, with its tongues Of varying flame, whence comes in later years Companionship with streams of changeful thought. Soon more than these, the light of kindred eyes — The all-embracing tenderness of one Whose look of mother-love scorns time or place — The bending father's glance of joy and pride. The vision grows in power. The child beholds The wide dominion of the natural world Where Beauty reigns, queen of the senses five. Bursting the gates of morn, the sun appears Clad in soft garments, and with feet unshod PILLARS OF THE TEMPLE. Ascends the glowing pathway of the sky Until at noon his sovereign eye looks down Upon the toiling sons of time, to be The glory and the beauty of their day. Behold the wonderful transfigurations In happy hours produced by rays of light: The fountain throws a thousand gems in air — The sailing clouds seem argosies illumed — The twilight wood becomes a bright arcade — The rugged hills their royal shadows blend — The green-clad fields put on their golden crowns — While flowers unfold their petals and appear In fairest colors of the earth and sky. Above us, like a coronet of flowers, An heavenly garland over earthly heads, The rainbow blossoms, loveliest, frailest bloom Of all the ages — one short hour it stands And then, untouched by time, it fades away. The earth, the sea, the air, the drop of water. The smallest grain of sand, the vagrant stone. Yes, even the common clod, when brought to light, Reflect the beauties of their parent sun. These vanish with the day. Now comes the night, When new enchantment fills the vaster space. And other sources of pervading light Irradiate the wider realms of nature. The eyes of infancy all hail the moon With feelings of affection and delight, For constant beams that warm, familiar smile Upon the great round face it bends to them. But from the distant stars, though bright and twinkling, There emanates a quality of wonder. An influence of .unearthly multitude In radiance steadfast and sublime — a source Of crystal joy, veined by a golden thread Where runs the first faint whispering of God. The free impressions of the child when led Into the temples reared by human hands Are mixtures of incongruous elements. The burning tapers and the incense clouds, With broidered vestments and with colored panes, Give pleasure to the young and thus effect A portion of their purpose; but the sense Of beautiful proportions and the breath Of noble discourse and the grace of pure Devotion have as yet no power to move. PILLARS OF THE TEMPLE. Passing from youth to manhood's early prime More hght is shed upon the truths of life, More excellent beauty is discerned in Strength. The struggling elements against the man In stormy surges roll. His mighty heart Must look unfrighted on their fierce advance; . His strong right arm must hurl them back again. Although his shield of innocence, bestowed First by the Master's hand, is worn through all The heat and burden of the day, full soon The sun is*in the West, and still must find That honored badge unspotted by the world. The sun is yet, though in a stronger sense. The glory and the beauty of the day. Tremendous forces are at work through all His realm. The coal and diamond, brothers twin And fashioned on the selfsame forge, give up Their energies confined in ages past. The blocks rough-hewn from quarries numberless — The cedars from the brow of Lebanon — The gold, the ivory and the precious stones Are varied fruits of those resplendant loins. That wondrous sun through ages unconceived Toils on and with vulcanic strength and skill Produces every day some form improved Of universal life. The rocks — the fires And floods that make them plastic to his touch — The slime of ocean with its dawning life — 'The atmosphere enfolding land and sea — The winds of heaven that sweep and purify — The caverns dark, with crystal shapes adorned — The red volcanoes and their breath of flame — The buried elements — the ocean pearls — The rich deposits of metallic kind — The mother-goil with her sustaining powers — The growth of plants, their various flowers and fruits- The active life of wood and plain — the warmth, The foods, the fabrics and the working tools, And even the very thoughts of man, are reared And multiplied from that prolific source. With solar strength man stretches forth his hand And mass and molecule obey his will. Activities of heat and light and sound, Magnetic and electric forces join The servant trains of Science and of Art. The strong man sees the strength in everything: PILLARS OF THE TEMPLE. The rainbow has no different lustre now, And yet the power of knowledge has revealed A secret beauty higher than of sense. That glorious arch thrown far across the sky Resolves itself into a million pearls Pierced by a million glances of the sun, And these returned, by geometric paths, In one united and fraternal band, To sweep the heavenly fields harmonious And paint themselves upon a million souls. So in the watches of serenest night Cyclopean music bursts upon the ear That listens for the mind, and the mind's eye Beholds throughout the universal depths The giant march of worlds. Sun after sun, In starry grandeur and in glorious clouds, Like bannered armies wheel through infinite space — A stirring vision full of pomp and power, A revelation of the bare sublime That lifts the soul with elemental strength. Those mystic gravitative ties that bind The solar system to some greater star. The comets and the planets to the sun. Their moons to them, the atom unresolved Unto its brother atom — all become A portion of the visible pageantry. The shafts of force that wing their constant flight From world to world, no matter how remote. Are traced in light on the celestial sphere. And whether high or low the strong man turns To grasp the secret of the universe. This overwhelming lesson he must learn — This wide, imperial proclamation hear: One force in varied movement flows through all The countless arteries of Creation's life — ' One power prevails — one strength doth regulate Its mighty pulses through their infinite length — One will commands them forth — one calls them back To flow united through the heart of God. The man of strength reveals it in his work. The temple that he builds reflects himself. Its dome, though massive, is so well designed, With the supporting columns of such size And just proportions, each so firmly set In union with its fellows, as to fill His workman heart with pride and gratitude. PILLARS OF THE TEMPLE. To him the burning tapers but illume The paths and virtues of its greater lights. Its lofty space and outlines grand become A sermon on the silent wings of thought An anthem on the organ's solemn voice A dream of high resolve— a soldier's prayer— An odor sweet from immemorial time • A promise — and a blessing— and a strength. Supported by this strength his soul is raised To further light in a sublime degree. The glamours loved in childhood fade away; The later passions cool; and in their place The calm, perpetual light of reason shines. Now purified his vision looks on hfe, And lo, 'tis not a picture only, — no, Nor but a battlefield; nor is it all Of life to merely live. True life must have A purpose and development — an art And a fruition, — conquering circumstance .Through character; perfecting loveliness With the all-penetrating spirit of love. Wisdom creates what wisdom sole can see — A higher beauty and a nobler strength. 'Tis wisdom penetrates the soul of thing^ To find the inmost essence of their life. Appearances, like cobwebs brushed away, No more conceal the corners of the heart. From all phenomena the veil is rent. And there is light when spirit stands revealed Before the glance of Wisdom's spiritual eye. As cosmic beams, like wing-shod Mercurys, Are ever speeding through the trackless night From world to worlds, from star to universe, And pressing far to every island shore On that dim ocean of etherial space. And beating swift on every optic strand With silent, soft, inmicroscopic waves, Yet bearing all the warmth by which we thrive — So spiritual light, eternal and serene In undulation from the All-seeing Eye, Rolls through the dark abyss of ignorance And beats with flashing waves and still, small voice On mind and conscience with its vital truths. What is material life? A passing show. The myriad forms of beauty and of power Are emblems only of the things unseen: PILLARS OF THE TEMPLE. , From that swift-reaching rainbow, hovering high Above the flying chariots of the storm, With peaceful promise on its silent lips, To this acacia sprig of slower growth And humbler station, but of longer life And deeper meaning where its bloom appears Above the grave of poor mortality In token of imperishable soul. The sun is yet, though in a wiser sense, The glory and the beauty of the day. For now internal qualifications are Regarded most. No borrowed light reflects From that great orb the blaze of mightier stars, But of its own intrinsic worth it shines. Even as the light of reason sheds the truth. Yet have they both their bounds immutable. At every rising of the sun we see What periods of recurrent order rule And govern nature from a secret source Of deeper being than the life of sense. Even so the human mind is circumscribed Within due boundaries by that unseen power, That spiritual truth behind phenomena. Inventive man produced the microscope And worlds inside of worlds countless revealed, And beauty found in things that seemed uncouth. The telescope he also made, and saw Sidereal lights transcendant more and more, With stellar life and circling harmony Where once were formless, dimly shining clouds. But better still than added powers of seeing, A new access of reverent search, with food For thoughts of loftier birth, invaded now The fair domain of science, and a page Magnificent was turned in nature's book. Not only infinite time and infinite space But infinite life itself comes surging in Around the very base of reason's throne. Which, raised upon its perfect waves, it bears Through fog and storm to sure foundations there Upon the luminous mountain-land of God. No instrument can aid the sensate eye To fix the essence of a power unseen; Nor can the language of the sensual heart Worship the holy spirit wheresoe'er. No pomp, no place, no time can render sweet PILLARS OF THE TEMPLE. The noxious offerings of idolatry. God's worship is in spirit and in truth. The upright man looks not afar; but finds The Master Soul within his own pure heart — There humbly bows to reverence and adore. Nor takes he most delight in temples built With sound of hammer, axe or iron tool. The noblest building that was ever raised Through wisdom, strength and beauty born of man To him is but an emblem of that house Not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For he hath knowledge of himself, and sees Within himself the workman and the stone; Within himself the power to contemplate The spacious fabric of the universe; Within himself the wisdom to observe Divine perfections and from thence receive Instructiens good and wholesome for his work, Which straightway he begins and prosecutes With zealous faith. Although he finds his soul Shapeless and rough, naked and lustreless. Yet our Supreme Grand Master will present To him, as to the many gone this way Before him, every working tool he needs. But first will show the square of virtuous acts, The compass with its perfect points to bound And circumscribe his individual mind; With these that book of books, that rule and guide, That spiritual trestle-board whose surface wide Is covered with most beautiful designs. When from their contemplation he returns To look upon that emblematic stone, That rough embodiment of his own soul, Which he must fashion to its fitting shape. Well might his courage fail him, but he knows The goodness of that Architect Most High Who reared the intellect of man upon Those pillars three of Wisdom, Strength and Beauty, It is a figure manly and sublime The craftsman now presents: He stands erect And gazes full upon his own short life With imperfections on its every face. No task of light and trifling nature this — He needs must kneel, a blessing to invoke. Beside him rest his trusty working tools. With eager hand he lifts them, one by one, 015 785 904 3 PILLARS OF THE TEMPLE. Observes them with a look of high resolve, Applies them with a smile of laboring love. With one he measures out both work and time, With intervals for duty and for rest — With one he breaks away the edges rough Where vice and useless vanities project — With one he makes it upright and secure — With one he makes it virtuous and serene — With one adjusts and sets it true to fill Its purpose and its destined equal place — And with another spreads that pure cement Of love fraternal, to unite it with Its brothers in. a Temple of the Soul Beyond that level road of time, beyond That bourn which none may evermore repass. That sixth day even when the man must rest From all his labor howsoe'er performed. Well be it if the work is faithful done: Well be it if the finished life shall fit With such divine exactness as to show Itself the handiwork of one who wrought With wisdom, strength and beauty to the end. For such compose that Temple of the Soul, That spiritual building where the light of God In endless, unimagined splendor shines Through every living stone. So mote it be. 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