An Ode on Faith

What keeps a man, when Abraham is preached,
From imitating him,---in murdering
His son?---to, another's life, be the thief?
Much the same that allows one, whose reading
Of a poet, understand the clever
Metaphors, and gives one's knowledge a truth.
'tis what allows a man knowledge; whispers
In his ears the meaning of sweetest fruit.
There is the literal, which, willing kills,
Without concept lays actions bare and bald.
The literal reading atheists fill
Christian minds, searching deeply for a fault.
Yet, we somehow know what a passage means,
For that is why faith remains; 'tis unseen.
Should man without this ability be,
Such man, hell's stone be his foreboding vault.