Ab Initio

BELLE D. MAC GREGOR

Thou who hast watched the flame of hope burn low
Upon the altar hid within thine heart
Till ashes cold and gray as moorland mist
The altar and thine heart alike enfold,
And thou did'st rise with senses dulled by pain
Unspeakable to stumble down the path
Into the valley veiled in mists of doubt;
Hear thou the voice of Truth immutable:
Pause thou within the shadow of the rock
While Truth doth break to thee the bread of Life.

O son of man, lift up thine eyes and see.
Hear thou, and hearing know the voice of Him
Who bids thee wake to Life omnipotent.
Know'st not that thou
Can'st ne'er find Life in earthly symbol given?
In pots of clay bloom not the flowers of heaven.
Like unto like is the eternal plan:
Art thou within thy shadow, son of man?
But yesterday one lived the truth for thee;
Hast thou so soon forgot, O blind of eyes,
So soon forgot, earthbound and dull of ears?

God's universe doth all around thee lie
Invisible to eyes that will not see;
In all thy years, however long the span,
Hast thou or thine at any hour seen God,
The one eternal cause, omnipotence?
Or having failed, Life's mystery stands revealed:
As Father so the Son, eternal law
Doth govern all. The shifting sands of time
But thinly veil the omnipresent All,
And here abideth God and man, His son.