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CHRIST AND ORPHEUS (3)
#1
CHRIST AND ORPHEUS.

What means this vain ideal of our Lord,
With ' Orpheus ' underwritten ? Couldst thou see
With eyes of faith the Incarnate Deity,
That faith a nobler title would accord
Than this, whereat no Christian fancy warms ;
Thou would'st not score the mythic harper's name
Beneath the fallen head and outstretch'd arms,
Nor seem to blink our dear Redeemer's claim
To His own cognizance and proper fame ;
The sorrowing manhood of the King of kings,
The double nature, and the death of shame,
The tomb—the rising—are substantial things,
Irrelevant to Orpheus ; What hath made
Thy wisdom match Messias with a shade ?



O give thy King no bynames ! nor decry
The title proper to His native throne
Within our hearts, as tho' thou would'st deny
The authentic angel's voice which made it known
'Tis treason to invalidate our creed
By understatements, partial, vague, and scant ;
A faith in music is not what we want.
This sweet-toned mythus meets no sinner's need ;
Come to the rescue, all who would not fuse
Redemption into harp-notes ! nor exchange
For this new style our grand prescriptive use ;
Nor seek, from flying leaves of legend strange,
To annotate Christ Jesus ! till the next
Bold pen obtrudes the margin on the text.



O friend, it is a deep religious loss
To palter with our Master's pure renown ;
To lose the sad precision of the Cross
In Fancy's lights, and melt away His crown ;
Gazing on truth, why should our vision swim ?
Let Calvary stand clear of fabulous mist,
Keep all the paths of Olivet for Christ,
And let no Orphic phantom walk with Him !
Then^ and then only, welcome ! what they tell
Of that majestic harp, which came full-strung
Among the woes of Hades, to compel
A pause in all her penance—of the spell
Marr'd by a look-—and of that faithful tongue.
Which Death and Hebrus strove in vain to quell.
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