The Downfall of Mammon
THE baleful era of King Gold has vanished,
And men disgusted with the part they played,
From out the temple of their hearts are banished
The idols that debased the souls they swayed.
Man yet hath passions and the cause of passions,
And so will have in his best future-state;
But he hath reason too, by which he fashions
Them into servants for a purpose great.
Instead of self-hood and of actions cruel,
Inspired by Love heroic deeds abound;
And Charity’s esteemed a richer jewel
Than ever yet in Orient mine was found.
Instead of falsehood, Truth his speech inspireth,
Inspires his thought and permeates the man,
Till lo! the utter’d word a worth acquireth
Which merely written missives never can.
Instead of Superstition grim and hideous,
Religion triumphs, and whate’er obtain,
No longer Envy can, with hints invidious,
Cause man to visit brother man with pain.
Thus in ways manifold, sublime, and glorious,
The God-sprun tenants of the earth at last,
Arise o’er every mortal ill victorious,
That made their life a hell-life in the past.
No longer prompted by fell aspirations,
Doth man send havoc into realms afar
But gains from acts of peace more prized ovations
Than ever gratified the sons of war.
No longer to his inner part disloyal,
He learneth, from the still small voice he scorn’d,
How to become a king in act, more royal
Than ever yet a throne of gold adorn’d.
No longer bound to themes abhorred or hated,
On highest subjects is the mind employed;
And as by war no Land is desolated,
From lack of love no heart is left a void.
By cords of sympathy before the altar,
Not chains of gold are youth and virgin led;
And when the trite 'I will’ their accents falter,
From hearts ’tis faltered in affection wed.
No want of union and no fatal duel
Fought by two hearts in silence grim, if not
In cruel actions or in words as cruel,
The lot of wedlock makes a bitter lot.
A circle round the hearth-stone, young and olden,
The family gather, and their feelings blend
And interblend, till in a concord golden
As one they labour for a noble end.
In time those circles form but inner circles
To circles greater, till the Nations act
As one vast soul whose sphere with glory sparkles,
And heaven, the dream on earth, is heaven the fact.
Onward and upward move the Nations, onward
And ever upward thus the earth-born move,
Till, like the gilded fane that pointeth sunward,
Their soul-flames touch the flames of those above.
Then, in a way hard to be comprehended,
As hills are cleft were hills ere time began,
So are the barriers asunder rended
Which kept apart the Angel and the Man.
Illumed by a light celestial, even
To them the light beyond the Veil’s unfurled
And messages of import sweet are given
Unto the outer from the inner world.
Not dead are found those whom by death seemed
captured,
Not tho’ their dust be scattered by the wind—
Not dead but living, and with hearts enraptured,
Still toiling for the dear ones left behind.
United, soul to loving soul united—
Blent heaven and earth in one harmonic whole;
Glory to God shout one and all united,
And halleluiah rings from pole to pole.
The baleful era of King Gold is vanished;
The idols that debased the soul they chain’d,
From out the temple of the heart are banished;
And the Millenium’s at last obtained.
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