The Cross
Major poem by Robert Wharton Landis, Professor in Danville Theological Seminary, 1870. Danville was in ruins after the Civil War with no students and one professor. The institution then merged with a Kentucky Seminary of various names. (Another Landis title at cimmay.us - 1859)
“Still I shall rule, and my own will perform
Ev’n thro’ the sway which Satan holds on earth.
Kings, emperors, and governors hold rule
By me; and my own Providence performs
Its pleasure here, and will perform, even through
The policy whereby those rulers rule;
Yea, ev’n when most they would denounce my sway.
And though to mine their kingdoms stand adverse,
They shall in all their pomp and pride abide
Until that hour; when, with an iron rod,
I shall to pieces break them, and shall dash
To fragments, as a potter’s vessel, all,
To rise no more forever. Teach ye this
To them and to my Church; that all may know
That here no government, whate’er pretext
It may assume of sanctitude to gain
Communion with my Church, shall to my Word
Obedient be reformed till I return.
Not reformation waits them; they have earned
Destruction, and destruction shall be theirs.
And hence, let not my followers hope to find
Repose on earth; for here, till then, abides
For them affliction, tribulation, toil—
Not triumph; (save that which the truth attains
O’er error, as my kingdom still extends;)
And hence, thro’ tribulation much, they pass
Into the heavenly kingdom and their rest.”
Ev’n thro’ the sway which Satan holds on earth.
Kings, emperors, and governors hold rule
By me; and my own Providence performs
Its pleasure here, and will perform, even through
The policy whereby those rulers rule;
Yea, ev’n when most they would denounce my sway.
And though to mine their kingdoms stand adverse,
They shall in all their pomp and pride abide
Until that hour; when, with an iron rod,
I shall to pieces break them, and shall dash
To fragments, as a potter’s vessel, all,
To rise no more forever. Teach ye this
To them and to my Church; that all may know
That here no government, whate’er pretext
It may assume of sanctitude to gain
Communion with my Church, shall to my Word
Obedient be reformed till I return.
Not reformation waits them; they have earned
Destruction, and destruction shall be theirs.
And hence, let not my followers hope to find
Repose on earth; for here, till then, abides
For them affliction, tribulation, toil—
Not triumph; (save that which the truth attains
O’er error, as my kingdom still extends;)
And hence, thro’ tribulation much, they pass
Into the heavenly kingdom and their rest.”