Poem August 31, 1974 Issue

EXORCIST IN TRUTH

Acts 19:13-17

Gerald Stanwell

There is none else.
No carnal dream
obsessed with the occult
can counterfeit the Christ, or even seem
to cast out evil, mouthing only words
of vain self-will.

The sons of Sceva tried,
without the joy of self-effacing prayer,
and failed.
Yet Jesus' name was magnified
before them all. He'd cast out devils quickly,
not with superstition or Beelzebub
but Love's unerring pointing of the way.
The Science of the Christ that Jesus used
awaits wise choice.

No frenzied ritual
is required, for God is power—accepted or ignored
by every age. Perhaps when men are bored
and drunken with belief, at last they turn
from crumbling moral standards and unrest,
put all their trust in matter to the test,
destroy their idols, their alchemy dissolve
and turn with wakened and aroused resolve
away from necromancies of today,
praying more deeply, and without delay.

Gerald Stanwell

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