Our Profession and Other Poems Part 5

Keep well the trust! Guard it we must, From in and outward foes, Strength will be gained, might be attained By efforts to oppose

The secret vice that doth entice To ruin and despair; But he who will hath power to kill Such vice within its lair.

Let habits grand the life command And Eden is regained; No future bliss need surpa.s.s this If habits are unstained.

Let smiling face your presence grace And earth will smile on you, Let from the tongue a song be sung, Its echo will be true,

And sing again the same refrain Upon the selfsame key, Till airs elate, reverberate, Heaven's sweetest minstrelsy.

If we extend a hand to friend Who needs a brother's care, Though it may hold no purse of gold The act he will revere.

Scarce do we know whence comes the glow That duty done e'er gives, Its altar-fire cannot expire-- Here and hereafter lives.

Such habits then, for G.o.ds and men, Are but the means whereby They may prepare to gain their share To mansions in the sky.

Sing then a song, its notes prolong, In praise of Habit's power; Let custom be from evil free And it will blessings shower.

EVIL HABITS.

How habit grows no one e'er knows, And yet he is a giant That has a will and subtle skill That never yet was pliant.

'Tis very plain that he has slain More than the sword and spear, With wily art he charms the heart And quells the greatest fear.

His artful eye is wondrous sly And has bewitching glance, Where'er he moves his victim loves To see his powers advance.

He makes no noise 'mong girls and boys Whom he would call his own, His spell is cast, he holds them fast Till they are overthrown.

When this is done the field is won, And they are all his own, He heeds no cry, no choking sigh, No plea, no prayer, no groan.

If you would be forever free From tyrant so severe, Watch every thought before you're caught, For he is hovering near.

Your every word guard with the sword Of truth, which never fails, Its honor's sung in every tongue, Its power e'er prevails.

Act well your part, and keep your heart Free from the tares he sows, For at the end like traitor friend He leaves you with your woes.

Thus Habit mars with wounds and scars The favored of our race, Transforms the mind that G.o.d designed Should be the dwelling place

Of n.o.ble thought with heaven fraught Into a sterile plain, Whose atmosphere is dank and drear-- A wild chaotic brain.

Man scarce may be entirely free From wiles and tricks and snares, Whose stealthy forms and subtle charms Approach us unawares.

Our eyes are blind or not inclined To see that powerful hand, That silently, yet forcibly Gives us its strong command.

LIFE'S EMERGENCIES.

How strangely dark are the vapors That sometimes obscure the way, Ere the light of truth advances To the noon of a perfect day.

As the unforeseen approaches In stealth from ambushed retreat, The mettle of soul is summoned Its emergencies to meet.

To shrink by its sudden coming, To surrender our control Without a struggle for vantage, Betrays a weakness of soul.

The conflicts with emergencies We meet in our daily call, Give strength or death to moral worth As we conquer them or fall.

To meet at once with valor true The attack from an ambuscade, In moral strife, or b.l.o.o.d.y war, Hath many a hero made.

Who has not trained himself to meet The vicissitudes that arise Upon the course of life's stern race, Must fail to secure its prize.

To hold a pessimistic view, And see the world as darkly "blue,"

And feel mankind is false, untrue, Is not a just conclusion; But Truth demands that Hope shall wear No false rose in her silken hair, To hide Deceit, Fraud, and Despair, That feed on wild Delusion.

STRAND DESPAIR.

The wrecks that lie on Strand Despair, Should serve as buoys on life's stern seas To guide the voyager safely, where He may escape the tides and breeze That drive to whirlpools, bars, and rocks, Where human vessels oft impinge And leave a ruin that but mocks The pleadings of persuasion's hinge.

An idle mind, companions base, A shrinking from a duty known, A sly deceit, a brazen face, A lying tongue, a sullen tone, Lead toward a wreck on Strand Despair, And none but self can move the helm To change the course for scenes more fair, To save from storms that overwhelm.

INDULGENCE.

An alarm is sounding through the land That tells of a stronger foe Than that which marched on Lexington, To strike a fatal blow At the liberties our sires did claim For themselves and all mankind, For this foe is a product of deceit And sophistry combined.

Its victims fall by the smiling ways Of a charmed environment That lures him on to neglect and sin, And to final banishment Of the vital spark of an earnest man, And all that is n.o.ble and true, To the effete round of nothingness Which honor and strength will subdue.

No Spartan Helen of beauty and fame, No mermaid with winsome face, No Siren that sings an alluring song, No Pandora in her grace, Can soothe and charm to destruction's retreat, Like the foe that robs of power To meet the needs of life's true aim, The requirements of each hour.

It has filled our courts, our prisons, our jails, And filled our almshouses, too, Itself and distress walk hand in hand, No crimes but its victims will do; Though it seems like a true and trusty friend 'Tis a tyrant in disguise, It leads to distrust and uncertainty, It wins no enduring prize.

In homes it leads to disorder wild, In school, to defiance of laws, In nations, to strife on b.l.o.o.d.y fields, In man, to destruction's jaws; In business its office is but to destroy, In friends.h.i.+p, brings lack of respect, In love, oft a maddened, frenzied heart That can never endure neglect.

Parents, true kindness holds steady hand, Judges, know justice is kind, Teachers, remember the work for you Is to strengthen heart and mind.

Kindness, dethroned by lack of control, Ruins our girls and our boys, Firmness is n.o.ble, honest, and true, Indulgence only destroys.