| William Baxter | Immortality (1866) |
| T H E L A D I E S ' R E P O S I T O R Y . |
| M A R C H, 1 8 6 6 . |
| I M M O R T A L I T Y . |
| BY REV. WILLIAM BAXTER. |
| MAN is not all of earth; The glowing splendors of bright fancy's fires-- The boundlessness of all his soul's desires-- Prove him of heavenly birth. Look on his glorious face! There the quick play of varied passions see! Look on that brow of thought! Must it not be A spirit's dwelling place? Behold that changing eye! Does not that glance of tenderness and love, That look of high resolve, or pity, prove Something that will not die? The grave can claim no part, Save that on which there falleth our sad tears; Clay can not cover all the hopes and fears Which swell each throbbing heart. Would God a palace rear For a frail being; with no nobler life Than that which classes with the dying strife? A life that endeth here? Ah, no! the tenant must More glorious than its glorious mansion be; Whose dome and columns soon, alas, we see All crumbling into dust. Lust may to dust return, Ashes to kindred ashes fall again; But thought dies not; of all the mind's bright train None find a funeral urn. Then, though thine eye grow dim, And sluggish flow the current of thy blood, Look up, O man, in steadfast faith, to God, For thou shalt go to him. |
[The Ladies' Repository 26 (March 1866): 153.]
ABOUT THE ELECTRONIC EDITION
William Baxter's "Immortality" was first published in The Ladies' Repository: A Monthly Periodical Devoted to Literature and Religion, Vol. 26, No. 3, March 1866, p. 153. This volume, edited by I. W. Wiley, was published in Cincinnati and Chicago by Poe and Hitchcock and in New York by Carlton and Porter.
Addenda and corrigenda are earnestly solicited.
Ernie Stefanik
Derry, PA
Created 18 April 2000.
Updated 28 June 2003.
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