dots-menu
×

James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902.

October 2

To the Memory of Channing

By Anne Charlotte Lynch (1815–1891)

  • An American clergyman and philanthropist. One of the chief founders of American Unitarianism. He died on Oct. 2, 1842.


  • THOSE spirits God ordained,

    To stand the watchmen on the outer wall,

    Upon whose souls the beams of truth first fall;

    They who reveal the ideal, the unattained,

    And to their age, in stirring tones and high,

    Speak out for God, truth, man, and liberty—

    Such prophets, do they die?

    *****

    The landmarks of their age,

    High-priests, kings of the realm of mind, are they,

    A realm unbounded as posterity;

    The hopeful future is their heritage;

    Their words of truth, of love, and faith sublime,

    To a dark world of doubt, despair, and crime,

    Re-echo through all time.

    Such kindling words are thine,

    Thou, o’er whose tomb the requiem soundeth still,

    Thou from whose lips the silvery tones yet thrill

    In many a bosom, waking life divine;

    And since thy Master to the world gave token

    That for Love’s faith the creed of fear was broken,

    None higher have been spoken.

    *****

    Ages agone, like thee

    The famèd Greek with kindling aspect stood,

    And blent his eloquence with wind and flood,

    By the blue waters of the Ægean sea;

    But he heard not their everlasting hymn:

    His lofty soul with Error’s cloud was dim,

    And thy great teachers spake not unto him.