Poems

Men of thought, be up and stirring night and day: Sow the seed — withdraw the curtain — clear the way! Men of action, aid and cheer them, as ye may! There's a fount about to stream, There's a light about to beam, There's a warmth about to glow, There's a flower about to blow; There's a midnight blackness changing into gray. Men of thought and men of action, CLEAR THE WAY! Lo! a cloud's about to vanish from the day; And a brazen wrong to crumble into clay.

HUNGRY and naked, cold and poor, All full of grief and sin, I dragged myself to the temple door, Where sat one high within. Her lofty brow was stern and white, Her eyes saw nothing here, But gazed above, beyond my plight, Into some distant sphere.

In the heart so deeply hidden From the sight of finite man, Reigns the motives which have bidden Mortals formulate a plan For a name of endless fame. Some, ensconced in coats of mailing Proof against all humane feelings, Never hear oppression's wallings In their greed for gain in dealings, With the men of moral ken: These are they who grasp for millions, Careless of all human cost; For they only scheme for billions, Heedless of all honor lost In their gladness which is madness.

THE voice of the master was heard by the men, As he spoke from the shore, on the morning, when He found them toiling, and working hard With their nets, by the morning dawn. "Cast your nets on the other side": How the sweet voice echoed over the tide, How their faith and love arose once more, As they filled their nets, and pulled for shore.

THE days of miracles are past. " We echo joyfully, No longer grope we in the clouds Of doubt or mystery.

THERE comes no sound unto thine ear—no word To prove to thy sad heart that God hath heard Thy plaintive cry? Go, shout across the sea. Wave speaks to wave; but nothing answers thee, Because no barriers are in the track, To stay thy voice and send an echo back.

When winds are raging o'er the upper ocean, And billows wild contend with angry roar, 'Tis said, far down beneath the wild commotion, That peaceful stillness reigneth evermore. Far, far beneath, the noise of tempests dieth, And silver waves chime ever peacefully; And no rude storm, how fierce soe'er it flieth, Disturbs the Sabbath of that deeper sea.

" He told how we should seek; not thrusting in As if Heaven heard the loudest cry; as though The gateway of the Kingdom must be forced, And a path pushed over the fallen ones: But foremost by Renunciation, first By good-will to be last; by help, not haste; By eagerness not to be saved, but save. 'Judge not, that ye, too, be not judged, He said, 'For, as ye judge, ye must be judged.

But we have sore misused, to all men's loss, The great word "God," speaking the Unspeakable With daily lips, and doing nowise well To give thereby parts, passions, qualities To the All-Being, who hath none of these; Mingling weak mortal thoughts of "Sire" and "King" In "God the Father"; and so worshipping An idol, served with muttered spell and moan, Baser than brass, and duller than dead stone; A graven image of that Glorious All Who hath no form, and Whom His Angels call By never uttered names, and Whom to see Not once hath been, and never once shall be; Who doth, in universal rule, possess Majesty, beauty, love, delightfulness; The omnipresent, conscious, Joy. 'Twere well,— If name must be—with Mary's Son to spell This unspoiled Word, mystical, free of dread, Ancient and hallowed; and by those lips said Which knew its meaning most, and called "God" so, "Eloi" in the Highest.

OUT of the sordid, the base, the untrue, Into the noble, the pure and the new; Out of the darkness of fear and sin, Spiritual harmonies to win; This is our Resurrection. Out of the bondage of sickness and pain, Out of poverty's galling chain; Into the freedom of perfect health, into the blessing of fadeless wealth; This is our Resurrection.