Self-Resurrecting Dead

“Arise, ye dead,” Arminius cries;

Arise, ye dead in sin!

Unstop your ears, unseal your eyes

And a new life begin.

Why will ye die, ye wretched souls?

Ye dead, why will ye die?

Quicken and make your spirits whole;

to life eternal fly.”

As Baal’s worshippers of old,

begg’d, pray’d, and cry’d aloud;

cutting their bodies, as we are told,

to move a fancied god;

so on the idol man he’ll call,

and pompously declare,

though slightly damaged by the fall,

how great his powers are.

“Rise, noble creature! Man, arise!

And make yourself alive!

Prepare yourself to mount the skies;

For endless glory strive.”

Deluded Seer! But man will lie

Still senseless as a stone;

And you yourself stand fooling by,

‘till both are quite undone:

Unless Almighty power be mov’d

By God’s free-will, not thine,

To quicken both, and make his love

On both your hearts to shine.

Serious Essays, in verse, Rev. John Ryland Jr.