Book Description

Songs of Labor and Reform From Volume III., the Works of Whittier: Anti-Slavery Poems and Songs of Labor and ReformBy John Greenleaf WhittierTHE QUAKER OF THE OLDEN TIME.THE Quaker of the olden time!How calm and firm and true,Unspotted by its wrong and crime,He walked the dark earth through.The lust of power, the love of gain,The thousand lures of sinAround him, had no power to stainThe purity within.With that deep insight which detectsAll great things in the small,And knows how each man's life affectsThe spiritual life of all,He walked by faith and not by sight,By love and not by law;The presence of the wrong or rightHe rather felt than saw.He felt that wrong with wrong partakes,That nothing stands alone,That whoso gives the motive, makesHis brother's sin his own.And, pausing not for doubtful choiceOf evils great or small,He listened to that inward voiceWhich called away from all.O Spirit of that early day,So pure and strong and true,Be with us in the narrow wayOur faithful fathers knew.Give strength the evil to forsake,The cross of Truth to bear,And love and reverent fear to makeOur daily lives a prayer!1838.DEMOCRACY.All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.-MATTHEW vii. 12.BEARER of Freedom's holy light,Breaker of Slavery's chain and rod,The foe of all which pains the sight,Or wounds the generous ear of God!Beautiful yet thy temples rise,Though there profaning gifts are thrown;And fires unkindled of the skiesAre glaring round thy altar-stone.Still sacred, though thy name be breathedBy those whose hearts thy truth deride;And garlands, plucked from thee, are wreathedAround the haughty brows of Pride.Oh, ideal of my boyhood's time!The faith in which my father stood,Even when the sons of Lust and CrimeHad stained thy peaceful courts with blood!Still to those courts my footsteps turn,For through the mists which darken there,I see the flame of Freedom burn,-The Kebla of the patriot's prayer!The generous feeling, pure and warm,Which owns the right of all divine;The pitying heart, the helping arm,The prompt self-sacrifice, are thine.We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience.