Anti-Slavery Poems and Songs of Labor and Reform, Complete






CALEF IN BOSTON.

1692.

     IN the solemn days of old,
     Two men met in Boston town,
     One a tradesman frank and bold,
     One a preacher of renown.

     Cried the last, in bitter tone:
     "Poisoner of the wells of truth
     Satan's hireling, thou hast sown
     With his tares the heart of youth!"

     Spake the simple tradesman then,
     "God be judge 'twixt thee and me;
     All thou knowed of truth hath been
     Once a lie to men like thee.

     "Falsehoods which we spurn to-day
     Were the truths of long ago;
     Let the dead boughs fall away,
     Fresher shall the living grow.

     "God is good and God is light,
     In this faith I rest secure;
     Evil can but serve the right,
     Over all shall love endure.

     "Of your spectral puppet play
     I have traced the cunning wires;
     Come what will, I needs must say,
     God is true, and ye are liars."

     When the thought of man is free,
     Error fears its lightest tones;
     So the priest cried, "Sadducee!"
     And the people took up stones.

     In the ancient burying-ground,
     Side by side the twain now lie;
     One with humble grassy mound,
     One with marbles pale and high.

     But the Lord hath blest the seed
     Which that tradesman scattered then,
     And the preacher's spectral creed
     Chills no more the blood of men.

     Let us trust, to one is known
     Perfect love which casts out fear,
     While the other's joys atone
     For the wrong he suffered here.

     1849.

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