<h2><SPAN name="poem79"></SPAN>PLEA TO SCIENCE</h2>
<p class="poetry">O Science, reaching backward through the
distance,<br/>
Most earnest child of God,<br/>
Exposing all the secrets of existence,<br/>
With thy divining rod,<br/>
I bid thee speed up to the heights supernal,<br/>
Clear thinker, ne’er sufficed;<br/>
Go seek and bind the laws and truths eternal,<br/>
But leave me Christ.</p>
<p class="poetry">Upon the vanity of pious sages<br/>
Let in the light of day;<br/>
Break down the superstitions of all ages—<br/>
Thrust bigotry away;<br/>
Stride on, and bid all stubborn foes defiance,<br/>
Let Truth and Reason reign:<br/>
But I beseech thee, O Immortal Science,<br/>
Let Christ remain.</p>
<p class="poetry">What canst thou give to help me bear my crosses,<br/>
In place of Him, my Lord?<br/>
And what to recompense for all my losses,<br/>
And bring me sweet reward?<br/>
<i>Thou</i> couldst not with thy clear, cold eyes of reason,<br/>
Thou couldst not comfort me<br/>
Like One who passed through that tear-blotted season<br/>
In sad Gethsemane!</p>
<p class="poetry">Through all the weary, wearing hour of
sorrow,<br/>
What word that thou hast said<br/>
Would make me strong to wait for some to-morrow<br/>
When I should find my dead?<br/>
When I am weak, and desolate, and lonely—<br/>
And prone to follow wrong?<br/>
Not thou, O Science—Christ, my Saviour, only<br/>
Can make me strong.</p>
<p class="poetry">Thou art so cold, so lofty, and so distant,<br/>
Though great my need might be,<br/>
No prayer, however constant and persistent,<br/>
Could bring thee down to me.<br/>
Christ stands so near, to help me through each hour,<br/>
To guide me day by day<br/>
O Science, sweeping all before thy power—<br/>
Leave Christ, I pray!</p>
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