Poem June 16, 1906 Issue

The Dedication to Divine Love

C. A. Buskirk

In the brave city smiling on the shore
Which, with its tossing tides, th' Atlantic laves;
Where fearless freemen, in the days of yore,—
A band intrepid, scorning to be slaves,—
Daring the utterance that made them free,
Tossed in their splendid scorn to the wild waves
The symbols of a haughty tyranny—
In this brave city, after scores of years,
The stately sign of a sublime event,
The symbol and prophetic monument
Of men's completer liberty, appears
With dominating dome against the sky,
A witness to this morning century.

Whence are these thousands thronging to its doors
To see this temple dedicate to Truth,—
These thronging thousands from so many shores,
The fervor of unconquerable youth
Quick'ning their footsteps, in their brighten'd eyes
Indomitable courage, on their brows
The radiance of high ideals? What endows
With something not of earth, but of the skies,
These joyous multitudes who dedicate
This temple to the full enfranchisement
Of all humanity? This high event
Commemorates an epoch, to translate
Whose grandest meanings is beyond our powers—
The writ of generations yet unborn,
When the grown blade shall show the ripened corn,
Accomplish'd signs in daily lives and thought
That the blest miracles of Love are wrought

Now as aforetime, that the Gospel's voice
Is to make every age and clime rejoice
That th' eternal arms of watchful Love,
Always around us, under us, above,
Never are shorten'd, but reach all our needs
In all ways, at all times; the creed of deeds
In th' Galilean's name; a faith whose rock
Is proven works, and therefore may not mock;
Love which is born of Love; keen gratitude
For hope and health and happiness restor'd,
For vices vanquished, for a shining host
Of priceless blessings; a stern brotherhood
And sisterhood in the divine desire
To free men from the slavery and mire
Of false beliefs, and lead them unto good:
These th' incentives of this multitude,
And these the ideals which still beckon on
And upward till the victory be won;
Those of the love-arm'd hosts in "the good fight"
Which cannot end until it end aright.

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