Classic Poem

PART II.—THE LIGHT

Mirror of God! From Carmel's sacred height
Thou hast revealed the day proclaimed of yore,
The new Love-dawn. Thou art the open door
Of radiant faith, humility and light.
Here where the billows in their restless might
Are halted by the adamantine shore
To music of the ocean's organ roar,
Thou turnest back the frenzy of the night.

Like fir-wood fragrance of a southern strand,
Or sun-gleams broken on a dark cloud-form
That bends a rainbow o'er a sultry land,
Thy word of peace was scattered to the storm-
A note that fluttered from a prison cage
Is now become the love-song of the age.

Of all the souls that e'er the Persian skies
Smiled down upon, none was more good and wise
Than Abbas, till Baha U'llah, his son,
Looked on the world with heaven-illumined eyes.

This was the Light of the Eternal One,
The Persian Lion turning to the Sun;
A word outringing from the towers of peace:
“War's cruel course is almost fully run.”

His sacred rites were prayer and kindly deed,
And faith in Love was his sufficient creed;
He found a valid altar everywhere
Whereon to offer self for human need.

He deemed the cross, the crescent and the fire,
The priest, the censer and the clear-voiced choir,
The songs and sacraments, the incense sweet,
Sacred to those alone whom they inspire.

Religion had not yet been fairly tried
Though many prophets in its name had died.
His wistful eyes saw Love with broken heart,
In word accepted, but in deed denied.

He knew no system could be true at heart
That keeps the race in prejudice apart.
All that would sunder human souls is sin
Though we should name it law, religion, art.

The priests were jealous of a lamp so bright.
Its word was truth; its wisdom was the light.
Expatriate long in many distant lands,
He came to Akka's walls by Carmel's height.

In two bare rooms, with seventy more, he spent
His prison exile, but his thoughts were bent
To such accomplishment that few could guess
How much his wondrous life and teachings meant.

Report of him and his deep wisdom passed
Throughout the Orient, voluble and vast.
Folk from afar to see the prophet came,
To hear his word and heed while life should last.

Arrived in Akka, all their toils seemed vain;
The guard forbade, but ere they turned again,
The prophet from his window, arms upraised,
Perceived, and blessed them, weeping on the plain.

They fared away to far Mazandaran,
To valleys where the flood of Indus ran;
Or northward toiling in their pilgrimage,
To live a nobler, truer life, began.

Meanwhile the stern, deliberate years rolled by
With leisure for a contemplation high
And writings of such memorable power
As shall outlive the mountains and the sky.

And all the while the great, blue, restless sea
Ploughed on as if a vast eternity
Were breaking at his feet to feed his heart
With wisdom written here, in part, for thee:—

This is the Word of the Eternal Mind,
The Breath of God, the cleansing Spirit Wind
That winnows life, and blows the chaff away,
Leaving the ripened fruit of joy behind.

In thee I placed the essence of My Light;
Use it for service; Love will give thee might.
For perfect action and for wise command,
The lamp of truth will guide thee day and night.

Lo, I created thee both rich and strong;
I made thee noble, yet behold! ere long,
Thou wast degraded, ignorant and poor;
Return, O loved one, from the roads of wrong!

From Love I moulded thee as from the clay;
Look thou within; turn not thine eyes away,
And thou shalt find me standing in thy heart,
A glorious sun, the centre of thy day.

I built within thy soul those fortress gates
Wherein Love dwells, and fadeless Beauty waits.
There thou shalt ever find thy highest joys—
Thy better self—the life that Love creates.

My face of light and beauty for thy guide,
If thou behold, and in its glowing hide,
Shall be as sunshine of a fragrant June
To cheer thee, sailing on the darkest tide.

Son of the Throne: Love's hearing too is thine;
Esteem and honour it, for it is Mine;
My sight thy seeing, Mine thy holiness;
The Vine am I; drink thou the perfect wine.

My servant, thou art like a jewelled sword;
If thou would'st be the mighty Spirit's word,
From sheath of self withdraw the hidden blade.
Thou shalt reveal the splendour of the Lord.

Live love and truth and in the furnace cast
Thy baser thought to feed the torrid blast;
The golden flux poured from the melting-pot
Shall shape to beauty and forever last.

Free from the fetters of thine own desire,
To love and unity thou shalt aspire;
The gates of peace shall open to thy sight
And all thy being glow with heavenly fire.

Then, O belovèd, thou shalt be my son,
And on the roads of fuller life shall run;
The veils all rend, and o'er a world eclipsed,
A mighty splendour breaks, and dawn's begun!

Then all the roads are free, and free thy part
To speak in truth the higher words of art;
The cloud-veils broken now, the rift will show
The goodness of the Universal Heart.

The gift is thine, henceforth, in thine own right,
To sift each ray of truth for heavenly light,
And no cathedral shall usurp the claim,
Or dare to say thy dawning is the night.

When earth can trust the good-will of her guest,
His soul shall climb, in wisdom's wonder-quest,
To peaks of knowledge in the high pursuit
Of leisured vision and harmonious rest.

For deep in Nature's Heart is purest gold;
'Tis his who finds it, his the right to hold;
The violent shall take it is the law;
The truth you do is bought, but never sold.

We were not ready for the flaming pace;
Our eyes were holden therefore by God's grace;
Lest we too soon should grasp the living fire,
We could not see what stared us in the face.

But when the hour arrived, the blazing beam
Burst through the wakened mind, a golden gleam,
And now the time when we perceived it not
Seems like a ghost of a forgotten dream.

Our stupid, small antipathies grow numb
When to the soul its solemn crises come;
Then back to primal sense our instincts fly,
And all our boasts of blood and race are dumb.

Even little patriots are saviours when
Their faith in God breeds loyalty to men;
This land or that is sacred if it serve
The commonwealth of Love, and only then.

Who loves his native land is wise;
More glorious he whose visioned eyes
Behold our God in every face
Beneath the blue and bending skies.

One God is ours, one earth, one air,
One sea, one sky is everywhere.
The world is not so very wide,
And heaven has only one bright stair.

It rises sheer in every clime
Veiled only by the films of time.
Love's stairway to the throne of God
Is pushing through the lily's slime.