Our thoughts are molding unmade spheres,
And, like a blessing
or a curse,
They thunder down the formless years,
And ring throughout
the universe.
We build our futures, by the shape
Of our desires,
and not by acts.
There is no pathway of escape;
No priest-made
creeds can alter fac[ts.]
Salvation is not begged or bought;
Too long this
selfish hope sufficed;
Too long man reeked with lawless
thought,
And leaned upon
a tortured Christ.
Like shriveled leaves, these worn
out creeds
Are dropping from
Religion's tree;
The world begins to know its needs,
And souls are
crying to be free.
Free from the load of fear and grief,
Man fashioned
in an ignorant age;
Free from the ache of unbelief
He fled to in
rebellious rage.
No church can bind him to the things
That fed the first
crude souls, evolved;
For, mounting up on daring wings,
He questions mysteries
all unsolved.
Above the chant of priests, above
The blatant voice
of braying doubt,
He hears the still, small voice
of Love,
Which sends its
simple message out.
And clearer, sweeter, day by day,
Its mandate echoes
from the skies,
"Go roll the stone of self away,
And let the Christ
within thee rise."
Poems of Power by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Chicago : W. B. Conkey, 1902.
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