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The Fate of the Prophets – 6 November 2008
The popular American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who is
described as having been kind and sincere, said “All things must
change to something new.”
Perhaps positive change, and the resistance with which it is opposed,
is one of the things he had in mind when he wrote “The Fate of the
The Fate of the Prophets
From “The Divine Tragedy”
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(27 February 1807 – 24 March 1882)
Alas! How full of fear
Is the fate of the Prophet and Seer!
For evermore, for evermore,
It shall be as it hath been heretofore;
The age in which they live will not forgive
The splendor of the everlasting light,
That makes their foreheads bright,
Nor the sublime
Fore-running of their time!
The Bible is full of examples of how prophets, who told the truth and
tried to bring about positive change, were mistreated and cruelly killed
even by the ones who would have benefited the most by such change.
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No! I see all the beauty of God's creation and I'm joyful. At the
same time, I see all the suffering and corruption going on in the
world, and feel called to help expose and end it so that we may have true
peace and compassion.
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