Classic Poem

There is not enough bad in the universe to damn any man,
There is not enough good in the universe to save any man:
Man is not to be saved or damned—he is to be fulfilled
I do not go outdoors and ask favors of the gods: I stay where I am: the gods come to me:
There is rain enough in my heart to water the face of the earth,
There is sun enough in my brain to warm the clustering and hungry stars.
We have saved men and damned men until God has tired of the miserable trade:
When the account was made up, after all the saving and damning, there were nothing but ciphers either way.
What could save the oppressed but justice and what could save the oppressor but that same justice?
God could no more give salvation than withhold it: God is salvation:
When God ceases to be salvation God is no longer God.
We rear temples to save men: hereafter we will build them to save God:
We steal fortunes to save our estate: we will give them up to save ourselves
The miner starves for bread and the master of the miner starves for bread:
Until both eat of the same loaf neither can possess.
As if there was salvation for anyone while there was not salvation for all,
As if there was riches for one until there was riches for all.
The nearer you bring men to each other the nearer you have brought God to man:
What God can do for you is of least importance: what you can do for God is everything:
What love can do for you is as nothing but what you can do for love fulfils the law
How little is God while God simply busies himself making planets out of the cooling gases!
How great is God while God is watching an atom turn to love!
Did we believe that God was coming from somewhere to save man's soul?
God has always been here saving God's self.