Here and there
I came upon a broad, unfettered mind
Like Murray's--cleaving through the spider-webs
Of shallower brains, and bravely pushing out
Upon the open sea of common sense.
But such were rare. The olden precedents--
Oft stepping-stones of tyranny and wrong--
Marked easy paths to follow, and they ruled
The course of reason as the iron rails
Rule the swift wheels of the down-thundering train.
"I rose at dawn. First in this holy book
I read my chapter. How the happy thought
That my Pauline would read--the self-same morn
The self-same chapter--gave the sacred text,
Though I had heard my mother read it oft,
New light and import never seen before.
For I would ponder over every verse,
Because I felt that she was reading it,
And when I came upon dear promises
Of Christ to man, I read them o'er and o'er,
Till in a holy and mysterious way
They seemed the whisperings of Pauline to me.
Later I learned to lay up for myself
'Treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust
Corrupteth, and where thieves do not break through,
Nor steal'--and where my treasures all are laid
My heart is, and my spirit longs to go.
O friend, if Jesus was but man of man--
And if indeed his wondrous miracles
Were mythic tales of priestly followers
To chain the brute till Reason came from heaven--
Yet was his mission unto man divine.
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