As much as I loved America's great philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson (and I still do), his essay 'Self Reliance' confused me in my youth. It was truth mixed with error. He proceeded by the light that he had--and he had a very great intellectual light--but it had been eclipsed by the restored Gospel light that had burst upon the world, that few, even today, have begun to walk in.
Compare this proud poem by William Ernest Henley, who may have been influenced by Emerson's 'Self Reliance,' with the Gospel of Jesus Christ-inspired counterpoint of an enlightened Orson F. Whitney:
Invictus
by William
Ernest Henley
Out of the
night that covers me
Black as the
pit from pole to pole,
I thank
whatever gods may be
For my
unconquerable soul.
In the fell
clutch of circumstance
I have not
winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeoning
of chance
My head is
bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this
place of wrath and tears
Looms but
the horror of the shade,
And yet the
menace of the years
Finds, and
shall find me unafraid.
It matters
not how strait the gate,
How charged
with punishment the scroll,
I am the
master of my fate:
I am the
captain of my soul.
The Soul’s
Captain
by Orson F.
Whitney
Art thou in
truth? Then what of Him
Who bought
thee with His blood?
Who plunged
into devouring seas
And snatched
thee from the flood,
Who bore for
all our fallen race
What none
but Him could bear—
That God who
died that man
might live
And endless
glory share.
Of what
avail thy vaunted strength
Apart from
His vast might?
Pray that
His light may pierce the
gloom
That thou mayest
see aright.
Men are as
bubbles on the wave,
As leaves
upon the tree,
Thou captain
of thy soul! Forsooth
Who gave
that place to thee?
Free will is
thine—free agency,
To wield for
right or wrong;
But thou
must answer unto Him
To whom all
souls belong.
Bend to the
dust that “head unbowed,”
Small part
of life’s great whole,
And see in
Him and Him alone,
The Captain
of thy Soul.
No comments:
Post a Comment