W.H. Burleigh[1]
[Published in The Pioneer January 1843 (1.1)]
[Edited and Annotated by Kate Penney of the University of Arizona Magazine Edition Project, 4 May 2015]
I.
Not worthiest in his worship who afar
Retired from crowds, in meditation deep
Passes his days beyond the maddened sweep
Of stormy passions, and the angry jar
Of clashing interests, that nought may mar
His inward peace, though all his hours are given
To prayer and penitence and dreams of heaven[2]—
Nor whose set responses loudest are
In the full temple, where the many kneel
To utter forms the spirit does not feel[3]—
For not in words, though breathed from tongues of flame[4],
Is the full heart of love revealed the best;
Nor in unuttered thoughts, that fill the breast
With quiet, and the bounding pulses tame.
II.
ACTION—untiring, earnest, bold and free,
Its impulse Love—its object, Truth and Right[5]—
By holy zeal sustained—by heavenly light
Directed ever, through thick darkness be
Over the earth, and men no longer see
The soul’s great birthright—ACTION, such as this,
Is holiest worship, and a purer bliss
Attends the offering, than the devotee
Of forms can know. Words, offspring of the brain,
High-sounding yet not heart-born, are in vain—
The heart turns loathing from them that hath known
The baptism of the spirit—turns, to find
Its joy in DOING—deeming thus his mind
Hath CHRIST, our Head[6] and great Exemplar[7], shown.
III.
Would’st thou, then, offer with a willing mind,
A sacrifice acceptable to Him
Before whose throne adoring seraphim
Bend with veiled faces[8]—labor for thy kind,
Uphold the feeble and direct the blind,
Reclaim the wandering, the lost restore,
And bid the erring go and sin no more[9].
Live for Humanity, and thou shalt find
Peace which the selfish heart can never know,
Joys that from holy action only flow.
Be bold for Truth, though all the world despise,
Be strong in Right, though all the world oppose,
Be free in Love, though all men are thy foes,
And God will smile on thy sacrifice.
It is impossible to read “Acceptable Worship” without reference to two things: Burleigh’s Christian Unitarian faith and Emerson’s 1838 Divinity School Address. Unitarianism, developing out of strands of liberal Protestantism, holds that Jesus Christ is not God—for that would be polytheism—but rather “an exceptional man, made free from sin, and kept so by an exceptional divine influence” (Miano). Therefore, we get a depiction of God as a king figure on a throne, holding court amongst “adoring seraphim” while Christ, nonetheless is the “head” of the church, is reduced to an “exemplar” of a virtuous life. Emerson, who made his address to Divinity College, Cambridge, was at the time a Unitarian before drifting years later (American Transcendentalism). From the address, we possibly get the poem’s call to “Truth and Right,” as noted in the footnotes. From both, it seems, we get the poem’s call to action as the greatest form of worship. Miano writes that “Unitarians regard goodness as the end, and religious acts as the means and helps to that end,” while according to Emerson, men act with both “natural laws of the human spirit” and “religious sentiment” inspire good acts. The call to action can also be attributed to Burleigh’s own life as a social reformer, advocating for abolition and temperance.
The significance of the poem’s title must be noted. It is not “Ideal Worship,” but “Acceptable Worship,” meaning that both the ascetic monasticism and organized services targeted in the first stanza are not merely lesser modes of worship, but “don’t count” at all. When Burleigh says “Not worthiest in his worship who afar / Retired from crowds, in meditation deep” by “not worthiest,” he presumably means “worthless.” When he says “Words, offspring of the brain / High-sounding yet not heart-born, are in vain,” it certainly seems as if he is condemning any sort of prayer (although Unitarianism does promote prayer as “speaking to our Heavenly Parent in full confidence that we will be heard”). Acceptable worship, it appears, neither resides in contemplation of the divine, nor ritual, but must be kept “down to earth” as it were, in action generated toward a “sacrifice” or “offering” and therefore both pleases God and serves humanity.
[1] William Henry Burleigh (1812-1871) was a minister of the Unitarian church and a social activist for abolition, the temperance movement and possibly women’s suffrage (his second wife Celia Burr was a women’s rights advocate and the first woman to join the Unitarian ministry after Burleigh’s death). Burleigh was noted for his hymns and religious poetry
[2] “Retired from crowds…dreams of heaven”—Likely referring to Catholic monasticism, although Anglican monasticism was not unheard of (The Prayer Foundation).
[3] “Set responses…where the many kneel…forms the spirit does not feel”—could be a reference to the Anglican or Lutheran church services or the Roman Catholic Mass in which the words of communal prayers are written and recited and genuflection (kneeling) to the Eucharist is expected. Either way, Burleigh is targeting any religion whose worship is merely recitation and “going through the motions.”
[4] “Tongues of flame”—a reference to the Christian celebration of Pentecost, in which it is believed that 40 days after Easter, the Holy Spirit literally inflamed the tongues of the Apostles, allowing them to preach the news of Christ’s resurrection in all the world’s languages. From Acts 2:2-4: “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
[5] “Its object Truth and Right”—Possibly a reference to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Divinity School Address and its section on virtue: “When in innocency, or when by intellectual perception, he attains to say, — `I love the Right; Truth is beautiful within and without, forevermore.’ ”
[6] “Christ, our Head”—A common Christian metaphor in which Christ is the head of the body, his church. From St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians 1:18: “And (Christ) is the head of the body, the church who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.”
[7] “Christ, our Exemplar”—According to D.R. Miano’s outline of Unitarian theology, it is believed that Christ, though indeed is the Son of God, is “finite and not infinite” and therefore “subordinate to the Supreme Being.” Miano writes “Unitarian Christians believe that the great glory of Jesus is his spiritual and moral glory. His true greatness was in his devotion to the Divine will, his sympathy with suffering people, his readiness to perform the lowliest tasks and bear a death of shame in order to save humankind from the power and evil of sin.” Therefore, Christ is the perfect example of the right Christian life, rather than actually God. In his other writings, it appears that Burleigh also believes humans can be lesser exemplars. See his 1873 poem “A Sanctified Life,” published posthumously in The Youth’s Companion, in which he honors an unnamed woman who “taught us how to live / With blameless life…Sweet lessons did she give / Of faith, of love, of hope.”
[8] “Before whose throne adoring seraphim / Bend with veiled faces” --From Isaiah 6:1-2: “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.”
[9] According to Miano, “Unitarians believe that the whole duty of humankind consists in doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God (Micah 6:8); in loving God with one’s heart, mind, and soul, and one's neighbor as one's self (Matt. 22:37-39; 1 John 4:21).” In reference to Christ as the great Exemplar, he says “Unitarians believe that Jesus felt himself to be sent by God to reveal the truth (John 18:37) and God’s pardoning love (John 1:17; Matt. 9:2, 6), to seek and save the lost (Matt. 18:11; Luke 19:10), to give rest to the weary and heavy-laden (Matt. 11:28), to carry up to a higher morality the law of duty (Matt. 5:18. 20, 21, 27, 33, 39, 44), to sacrifice himself for the good of others (Matt. 20:28), to call sinners to repentance (Mark 2:17), to preach good news to the poor, freedom to the captives, sight to the blind, and comfort to the sorrowful (Luke 4:18; 7:22), to reveal the parental love of God (Matt. 11:27; John 17:26), and to give spiritual life and hope of eternal existence (John 6:40, 47; John 10:10).
WORKS CITED
“Brief History of Protestant Monasticism.” Prayer Foundation.
www.prayerfoundation.org 1 May 2015.
Burleigh, William Henry. “A Sanctified Life.” The Youth’s Companion 15 May, 1873:
154. Print.
“Catholic Monasticism.” New Advent. www.newadvent.org 1 May 2015.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Divinity School Address.” Harvard Divinity School.
Cambridge, Massachusetts. 15 July, 1838. www.emersoncentral.com
1 May 2015.
“Emerson vs. the Unitarians.” American Transcendentalism Web.
www.transcendentalism-legacy.edu. 1 May 2015.
The King James Bible. Ediburgh: Thomas Nelson Inc., 1982. Print.
Miano, D.R. “An Explanation of Unitarian Christianity.” American Unitarian Conference
www.americanunitarian.org 1 May 2015.
“William H. Burleigh.” Hymnary. www.hymnary.org. 1 May 2015.
“William Henry Burleigh.” Museum of Love and Mortality.
www.museumofloveandmortality.com 1 May 2015.
Issue:
- January 1843