Image the Twenty-second: The Day of Days, or the Great Manifestation

Solemn are th' Autumnal signs
"When the waning year declines,
And the frequent meteor shines :
Deeper tokens shall appear
When the winter shall be near
Bringing in the Eternal Year.

Heavily through land and main
Moans the dread prelusive strain
Of the rising hurricane :
But more terrible the tone
'When Creation's self shall groan
As there comes the Judgment-throne,
Solemn is th autumnal pall
When the leaves in silence fall
Through the branching forest hall :
Darker gloom shall clothe the sky,
As that Season draweth nigh
When the stars shall fall from high.

When the sun is in eclipse,
Terror sits upon men's lips.
Till his light the forest tips :
Deeper fear through hearts shall run.
When the dim expiring sun
Says that his long work is done.

When the palsied earth doth shake,
When terrestrial thunders wake,
Sons of men with terror quake :
Then shall universal space,
From its height unto its base
Say the Judge doth leave His place.

Watchful wakes the eye and ear,
When the glowing Eastern sphere
Doth proclaim the Sun is near :
Hope and Fear shall listening stand
When the moving sea and land
Shall proclaim the Judge at hand.

Midnight terror wakes from sleep,
When the mountain thunders leap
Like a stag from steep to steep :
Louder far the trump of doom
Shall re-echo through the gloom.
And declare the Judgment come.

Marvellous and passing strange
From dead midnight is the change
When the mid-day sun doth range :
But more wonderful the sight
When the everlasting light
Breaks upon this earthly night.

Wondrous is the gate of Even,
When through all the dark-blue Heaven
To our sight the stars are given :
But more solemn shall it be,
When around us we shall see
The celestial company.

Sun and stars withdrew their light a.
When the locust cloud of blight
Shrouded Israel's land in night :
More ten thousand-fold the state
On the Judge's path shall wait
When He opes the Eastern gate.

When the dead Thy voice did hear.
In the grave and in the bier.
All aghast stood solemn Fear :
Then shall be a deeper dread,
When all ages of the Dead
Hear Thee in their darksome bed.

Oft we feel the dye is cast,
And a long expectance past,
And the hour is come at last :
So in silence of the tomb
In a moment shall have come
The expected Day of doom.

Solemn is the trial, when
Man doth give account to men.
Solemn is the trial then :
That account shall be more drear,
Greater trembling shall appear,
When the Judgment shall be near.

Dread on earth is the assize
When we watch the Judges eyes,
Till we see how sentence lies :
Greater awe shall hold the breath,
When we wait to hear of death
Which for ever perisheth.

Awful is the silent room
When a brother is call'd home,
And we feel his hour hath come :
Greater awe shall then be known,
When we see the Judge's throne.
And the sentence is our own.

Awful is the lightning blast.
When suspense doth stand aghast,
Ere the thunder follows fast :
Deeper shall be stillness when
Judgment summons one from men.
And we wait the Voice again.

Solemn thought within us breeds
When a multitude of heads
Like a sea around us spreads :
What shall be through earth and sky
When the Angels from on high
And all men are standing by ?

Wonder doth the heart appal,
When we witness first of all
Ocean, mountain, water-fall :
Greater awe the heart shall bow,
When it first shall ope to know
God Himself come down below.

In the peopled concourse now,
Lo before the rich man's brow
To the earth the poor doth bow !

See crown-sculptur'd tombs disclose,
And the crownless King arose.
But the poor before him goes.

Thought more grievous have we none.
Than that things which we have done
Should be brought to see the sun :
But what terror shall be then
When the thoughts of guilty men
Stand before the Judge's ken !

Now oft deed and word and thought
Pass away and go for naught,
Scarce before the conscience brought :
But they all shall then be found
Writ in adamantine ground,
And shall like a trumpet sound.

Now when conscience stands at bay,
From the look that strikes dismay
We can turn our eyes away :
But His face we then must brook,
When the Judge shall on us look.
And shall ope the dreaded book.

Conscience oft doth drop the rein.
Oft so fast her slumber's chain.
Not e'en death can burst in twain :
But the trumpet echoing deep
Shall so wake her watch to keep
That she ne'er again shall sleep.

Sin doth bring a gradual gloom.
Till she makes the soul a tomb.
Which no warning can illume :
But the all-pervading sight
Of the Judge's presence bright
Shall her senses steep with light.

Sudden in the crowded street
All past guilt our thoughts will meet.
Writ as in a lightning sheet :
Haply so in that appeal
Shall one flash of light reveal
All the bosom doth conceal !

When we feel us cold and drear
We have now some friendly ear
To alleviate our fear :
Who a pitying ear will bend
If the Judge be not our friend
In our everlasting end ?

Great below a glorious name
When the sounding voice of fame
Doth to men man's deeds proclaim :
Greater glory shall belong
Unto him whose right or wrong
Is upon the archangel's tongue.

Sweet, as soft melodious lays,
When the light of other's praise
Bathes our steps with sunny rays :
But if God should praise bestow
Who alone the heart can know.
What to this is praise below ?

Dread the calm when shipwreck o'er
Sounds of fear are heard no more.
And the sailor is on shore :
But, O thought surpassing speech,
When the soul wakes on the beach
Which no tempest more can reach !

Dreadful is the joy, I trow.
When a mother from her woe
Wakes her first-born child to know :
Greater joy succeeds the pain,
"When the soul shall life attain.
Never more to die again.

Thought comes like a sighing blast.
When it says our hour hath pass'd,
And our crown to earth is cast :
But such thought is weak to tell
If we wake and have to dwell
In a doom unspeakable.

Awful is the passing moan
Of a spirit left alone,
When it mourns occasions gone :
But more sad and desolate
If we waken all too late.

And are found without the gate.
Hearts almost to bursting swell
When they faintly syllable
To the dying sad farewell :
Sadder his adieu shall be
Who the loved — the blessed — shall see
Parting for eternity.

Touching sad is music known,
When a deep heart-thrilling tone
Brings around us loved ones gone :
Sadder shall be that sweet sound,
If it breathes their path around
Who have left us prison-bound.

Here when men together band,
And against each other stand.
Awful things are then at hand :
But no question now of right,
When these pass into the light,
Those to everduring night.

'Tis on earth the thing most dread
When corruption makes her bed
In the body of the dead :
Thus to us hath Love brought nigh
Semblance of the mystery
When the soul herself shall die.

If we have but eyes and ears
All Creation living stirs
Into speaking characters,
And to us would fain reveal
Things, which silence now doth seal.
Of that day without appeal.

Day of days, the first and last,
When shall sound the echoing blast.
And Creation stand aghast :
When the volume shall be spread.

And the writing shall be read,
Which shall judge the quick and dead !
Day of days ! that day of fear.
It is written shall appear
Ere we think it will be here.

Day of days, the day of doom,
When indeed wilt thou have come
On our bed or on our tomb ?

Day of days, the awful day,
Christ Himself hath bid us pray
That thou wilt not long delay.

Day of days, though long it seem.
It shall come before we deem,
When all else shall be a dream.

Sudden as on that old world
Vengeance erst the deluge hurl'd,
And her watery flag unfurl'd.

Sudden as on Sodom's walls
When the fiery judgment falls
And surprise lost guilt appals.

Sudden as at midnight shone
Flaming doom, pronounced and done.
On the halls of Babylon.

Sudden as at midnight deep
By dark death arous'd from sleep
Guilty Egypt woke to weep.

So Remorse shall wake too late
When with everlasting fate
Judgment shall unbar the gate.

When is heard the midnight cry
Of the Bridegroom's coming nigh.
And the Virgins slumbering he.

When the King shall standing near
At the marriage-feast appear,
Girded with o'erwhelming fear.

Oft Suspense hath look'd before
Watching for some opening door,
Then she finds that all is o'er:
When we feel in very deed
Hath arrived the hour of need.
And a trembling doth succeed.

In an instant from the ground
We shall hear the trumpet sound.
And in Judgment shall be found :
In a way no man can deem.
Nor an Angel reach the theme, —
Sudden as the lightning's gleam.

Then the Cross shall lift its head.
And the stars before it fled
Shall in darkness make their bed.

Day and Night on either hand
Shall in silence take their stand.
Waiting for the new command.

When the Maker of the whole
Shall the Earth and Heaven uproll.
Folding like a finish'd scroll.

When the hideous prince of air-
And the blackness and the glare
Speak the pit of lone despair.

When the Church released from wrongs,
On her Heavenward archway throngs,
Crown'd with everlasting songs.

When their task for ever done,
Earth gone by, and glory won.
Saints shall pass into the Sun.

As our thoughts the theme pursue
Still the portrait comes to view.
But how feeble to the true !

Lord, in this Thy mercy's day.
Ere it pass for aye away,
On our knees we fall and pray.

Holy Jesu, grant me tears.
Fill me with heart-searching fears.
Ere that awful doom appears.

Supplication on us pour.
Let us now knock at the door.
Ere it close for evermore.

By Thy night of agony.
By Thy supplicating cry.
By Thy willingness to die,
By Thy tears of bitter woe
For Jerusalem below,
Let us not Thy love forego.

Neath Thy wings let us have place.
Lest we lose this day of grace.
Ere we shall behold Thy face.

Love of God shall stand alone.
And that love it shall be known.
By the deeds that we have done.