William Maxwell Hetherington (4 June 1803 – 23 May 1865) was a Scottish minister, poet and church historian. He entered the University of Edinburgh but before completing his studies for the church, he published in 1829, 'Twelve Dramatic Sketches' founded on the Pastoral Poetry of Scotland. Hetherington became minister of Torphichen, Linlithgow, in 1836; in 1843 he adhered to the Free Church, and in 1844 was appointed to a charge in St. Andrews. He subsequently became minister of Free St. Paul's, Edinburgh, in 1848; and was appointed professor of apologetics and systematic theology in New College, Glasgow, in 1857. He died 23 May 1865.
Grief's Philosophy by William Maxwell Hetherington:
“This world is but a dream,
Peopled with forms ideal –
Dark gloom, or sunny gleam,
Fear’s night-cloud, Hope’s day-beam,
Are all alike unreal.
“We love, we hate in vain –
Joys, sorrows, all deceive us;
The gust of bliss or pain, –
Hope’s rainbow, Misery’s chain,
Flatter, torment, and leave us.”
“Life! ’tis an aimless path,
Harsh, pleasureless, and dreary;
A contest waged with death, –
A fitful, anxious breath, –
Troubled, oppressed, and weary!”
But who, dark one! art thou,
At the world and life thus railing?
Go, hide thy gloomy brow,
Where spray-mists shroud the bough,
And caverned winds are wailing!
“Yes, I may hide my head,
Where life-scenes ne’er shall wake me;
Loves, friends, are lost, are dead,
Joys, hopes, afar are fled,
Wishes, even fears, forsake me!”
Yet raise thy head on high,
Thou timid, weak immortal!
Thy home’s beyond the sky –
The woes that cloud thine eye,
Mere shadows in life’s portal!
