How long, O God, how long <br />Must thy pure eyes behold <br />This fair world blasted by the wrong, <br />Man does to man for gold? <br />How long shall Reason be cast down, <br />And a fierce demon wear her crown? <br /> <br /> <br />The prisoner's cell, that all <br />Life's blessed light bedims, <br />The lash that cuts, the links that gall, <br />The poor slaves' festering limbs,- <br />What is this thraldom, to the chain <br />That binds and burns the drunkard's brain? <br /> <br /> <br />If, then, thy frown is felt, <br />O God, by those who bind <br />The body,-what must be the guilt <br />Of such as chain the mind, <br />Drag to the pit, and plunge it in! <br />O have not these 'the greater sin'? <br /> <br /> <br />The mother of our race, <br />Whose sin brought death and woe, <br />Yet, in her weakness, found thy grace;- <br />The Tempter's curse we know. <br />Doth he who drinks, wrong most the soul? <br />Or he who tempts him to the bowl? <br /> <br /> <br />Help us, O God, to weigh <br />Our deeds as in thy scales; <br />Nor let gold dust the balance sway;- <br />For good o'er gold prevails <br />At that dread bar where all must look <br />Upon the record in THY Book.<br /><br />John Pierpont<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/hymns-and-odes-for-temperance-occasions-iv/
