File Name: The Prophecies of Isaiah by Dr. J A Alexander
File Submitter: Jim M
File Submitted: 08 Apr 2016
File Category: Commentaries
Author: Dr. Joseph Addison Alexander (1809-1860)e-Sword Version: 9.x - 10.x
A comprehensive commentary on Isaiah for Android devices
Dr. Alexander is also the author of a commentary on Psalms, and the following poem:
"There is a Line"
There is a time, I know not when -
A place, I know not where,
Which marks the destiny of men -
To heaven or despair.
There is a line, by us not seen -
Which crosses every path;
The hidden boundary between –
God's patience and God's wrath.
To cross that limit is to die -
To die as if by stealth.
It may not pale the beaming eye,
Nor quench the glowing health.
The conscience may be still at ease;
The spirit light and gay.
That which is pleasing still may please,
And care be thrust away.
But on that forehead God hath set -
Indelibly a mark,
By man unseen, for man as yet,
Is blind and in the dark.
And still the doomed man's path below -
May bloom as Eden bloomed.
He did not, does not, will not know,
Nor feel, that he is doomed.
He feels, he says, that all is well;
His every fear is calmed.
He lives; he dies; he wakes in hell -
Not only doomed, but damned.
Oh, where is that mysterious bourne
By which each path is crossed?
Beyond which God, Himself, hath sworn -
That he who goes is lost?
How long may man go on in sin;
How long will God forbear?
Where does hope end, and where begin -
The confines of despair?
One answer from the skies is sent:
Ye who from God depart -
While it is yet today, repent;
And harden not your heart.
This poem is also titled “The Hidden Line” and “The Doomed Man”. The first line of the last verse is sometimes given as: “An answer from the skies repeats”, which neither improves nor rhymes. That is the only line that perhaps merits change. Perhaps a better rendering would be: “One answer from God’s word is lent:”.
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