Elijah and Elisha, on their way
To cross the Jordan at the Lord's command,
Passed through successive towns but did not stay
Their feet. Then fifty watchers took their stand
As these two reached the river. There they saw
Elijah with his mantle smite its flow
And, thus defying gravitation's law,
Divide the waters with his signal blow.
Then, having passed the stream, Elijah said,
"Before I go what shall I do for thee?"
Elisha answered, bowing down his head,
"That twice thy spirit may be given me—
That mantle treasured since the world began."
Elijah said, "It truly may be so
If thou canst see me—not as mortal man,
But as God's image, bright with Spirit's glow."
Elisha saw the glorious burst of flame
That served as fiery chariot to lift
A sense of man from matter's outlined frame
And caught the mantle falling sure and swift.
Then reaching Jordan's bank again, he proved
His worthiness to use the mantle's power
That threats to progress might be thus removed
In every circumstance, in every hour.
The mantle we possess does not depend
On human skill in what the years unfold
But on the understanding God will lend
Of Spirit's wonders that we may behold.
The mantle of our own victorious being
Is symbol of our constant spiritual seeing.
