Purification

EVELYN SYLVESTER KNOWLES

Elijah called on God—Send fire from heaven;
Consume the fifty with their captains false,
That they may know that Thou art by my side.

The fire fell. The evil was destroyed,
And with it thoughts that clung to it as real!

Not to destroy mankind comes God's pure fire
To this enlightened age, but, rather, thoughts
Of error's breeding,—avarice and greed,
Malice and hatred, jealousy, revenge,
Unchastity with all its vicious train,—
These are consumed, not men who cling to them,
In their mistake zeal for happiness,
In place of true thoughts.

With the evil gone,
Regenerate mortals rise up valiantly
In joyous freedom as they see the truth
Of that wise saying, Profiteth a man
Who gains the world yet loses his own soul?
A dream-world, at the best! Who barters Truth
For such a myth proclaims himself the fool
Who saith within his heart, There is no God.

Ah! God be thanked for him who showed the way
To heaven's portals through Love's healing ray;
For her who leads us through inspired phrase
To live the truth, since thus alone we praise
Our God, whose substance, a consuming fire,
Destroys in mortals every false desire.

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