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The New Zealand Evangelist

Poetry — The Resurrection Morn.

Poetry.

The Resurrection Morn.

No sign of change appeared; to every man
That day seemed as the past. From noontide path
The sun looked gloriously on earth, and all
Her scenes of giddy folly smiled serene:
When suddenly, alas, fair Earth! the sun
Was wrapped in darkness, and his beams returned
Up to the throne of God, and over all
The earth came night, moonless, and starless night.
Nature stood still. And on all men
Came fear and trembling. None to his neighbour
spoke.
Husband thought not of wife, nor of her child
The mother, nor friend of friend, nor foe of foe.
And, as they stood and listened, chariots were heard
Rolling in Heaven. Revealed in flaming fire,
The Angel of God appeared, in stature vast,
Blazing, and, lifting up his hand on high,
By him that lives forever, swore, that Time
page 232 Should be no more. A universal crash was heard,
As if the ribs of Nature broke, and all her dark
Foundations failed; and deadly paleness sat
On every face of man, and every heart
Grew chill, and every knee his fellow smote.
None spoke, none stirred, none wept; for horror
held
All motionless, and fettered every tongue.
Again, o'er all the nations silence fell:
And, in the heavens, robed in excessive light,
That drove the thick of darkness far aside,
And walked with penetration keen through all
The abodes of men, another Angel stood,
And blew the trump of God: Awake ye dead!
Be changed, ye living, and put on the garb
Of immortality; Awake! arise!
The God of Judgment comes! This said the voice;
And silence, from eternity that slept
Beyond the sphere of the creating Word,
And all the noise of time, awakened, heard:
Heaven heard, and earth, and furthest hell through all
Her regions of despair; the ear of death
Heard, and the sleep that for so long a night
Pressed on his leaden eyelids, fled; and all
The dead awoke, and all the living changed.