| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900. |
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| 16. The Smooth Divine |
| | | By Timothy Dwight |
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| THERE smiled the smooth Divine, unused to wound | |
| The sinner’s heart with hell’s alarming sound. | |
| No terrors on his gentle tongue attend; | |
| No grating truths the nicest ear offend. | |
| That strange new-birth, that methodistic grace, | 5 |
| Nor in his heart nor sermons found a place. | |
| Plato’s fine tales he clumsily retold, | |
| Trite, fireside, moral seesaws, dull as old,— | |
| His Christ and Bible placed at good remove, | |
| Guilt hell-deserving, and forgiving love. | 10 |
| ’T was best, he said, mankind should cease to sin: | |
| Good fame required it; so did peace within. | |
| Their honors, well he knew, would ne’er be driven; | |
| But hoped they still would please to go to heaven. | |
| Each week he paid his visitation dues; | 15 |
| Coaxed, jested, laughed; rehearsed the private news; | |
| Smoked with each goody, thought her cheese excelled; | |
| Her pipe he lighted, and her baby held. | |
| Or placed in some great town, with lacquered shoes, | |
| Trim wig, and trimmer gown, and glistening hose, | 20 |
| He bowed, talked politics, learned manners mild, | |
| Most meekly questioned, and most smoothly smiled; | |
| At rich men’s jests laughed loud, their stories praised, | |
| Their wives’ new patterns gazed, and gazed, and gazed; | |
| Most daintily on pampered turkeys dined, | 25 |
| Nor shrunk with fasting, nor with study pined: | |
| Yet from their churches saw his brethren driven, | |
| Who thundered truth, and spoke the voice of heaven, | |
| Chilled trembling guilt in Satan’s headlong path, | |
| Charmed the feet back, and roused the ear of death. | 30 |
| “Let fools,” he cried, “starve on, while prudent I | |
| Snug in my nest shall live, and snug shall die.” | |
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