Now at Jerusalem there was a pool
Beside the market where the sheep were sold;
Bethesda was its name in Hebrew tongue.
It had five porches leading into it,
In which there lay a multitude of folk
Called impotent, and blind, and withered too,
All waiting for the water to be moved
When angel thought should break its sluggish calm;
For he who first stepped in was then made whole,
Men thought, of any plague he seemed to have.
Full thirty years and eight the man infirm
Had suffered pain, believed he could not walk;
He sought his healing when the waters stirred,
And shattered error's view of crippled man.
But ah! the stagnant pool of mortal mind,
Storehouse of evil's claims, suggestions false,
Can never heal or vanquish fearsome ills,
Nor break the mortal dream of sentient life!
Its porches five are nought but avenues
Or trails through which the sense material
Transmits beliefs of sin, disease, and death,
Mistaking matter for reality.
The voice of Jesus, messenger of Truth,
Aroused the dormant sense which forged his bonds:
"Wilt thou be whole?" Hope filled his waiting thought:
"I have no man to place me in the pool,
But while I hesitate, deliberate,
Another steppeth down before me, here."
That other one? the counterfeit, the dream
Of selfhood separate from God, and matter-bound.
But Jesus, understanding perfect man,
In God's own likeness, upright, whole, and free,
Destroyed the lie which claimed to bind, and said,
"Arise, take up thy bed, and walk in peace."
