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 COPYRIGHT DEPOSfT. 
 
PEACE SONNETS 
 
 BY 
 
 JESSIE WISEMAN GIBBS 
 
 ♦ 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR 
 VILLISCA, IOWA 
 1915 
 

 Copyright, 1915, by 
 JESSIE WISEMAN GIBBS 
 
 Printed for the Author by 
 
 THE ABINGDON PRESS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 JUL 26 1915 
 ©CU406867 
 
He is our peace. — Paul 
 
 How is it that ye do not discern this time? — Jesus 
 
AUTHOR'S NOTE 
 
 A word of explanation is necessary to give the 
 reader the view-point of the various sonnets in this 
 collection. The first twenty of them were written 
 over a year before the great war began, or was 
 dreamed of on this side the Atlantic, the initial 
 number having been a contribution to the first dis- 
 cussion as to whether the canal tolls dispute should 
 be submitted to arbitration. The twenty-first number 
 was written in view of possible conflict with Mexico, 
 at the time when American war ships were first sent 
 to Vera Cruz. The remaining thirty-six were, as 
 can be seen, inspired by the war. 
 
 A few of the sonnets here presented have already 
 appeared in the religious press, or in the author's 
 former volume of lyrics, entitled "Overtones." 
 
 j. w. g. 
 
my dear Country, thou canst never dare 
 Deny the Court of Peace ! Thou, who art hope 
 Of the world's weary nations ; 'neath the slope 
 Of whose spread wings they seek a sheltering care 
 Like to the care of God! Thou, who must share 
 Christ's saving travail for their sons, who grope 
 Through toil to thee ; must in thy members cope 
 With all their war, in strength of naught but prayer ! 
 
 Nay, but thou must be first to own that Court 
 
 And set it as a crown upon the brow 
 
 Of Christ, the King of Nations; first must thou 
 
 Confess his heavenly rule thy last resort, 
 
 Even as it is : so shall He judge thy cause 
 
 And stablish it in his unfailing laws ! 
 
II 
 
 Why trust we yet in enginery of war, 
 Country of my heart, who have a King 
 Who has no need of any such a thing? 
 Who makes us free within, and doth abhor 
 Aught save the gift of life and freedom, nor 
 Is willing one should perish ? Think we the sting 
 Of death to 'scape, with vain imagining — 
 To deal therein, and still his life implore ? 
 
 Lo, the hour has struck for peace, and we have heard 
 Christ in our heart speak "Peace !" It is thy hour, 
 My Country! shrink not its regnant power, 
 But stand forth in the strength that Christ doth 
 
 give- 
 Speak peace, that thou and all the lands may live, 
 Ere thou and they all perish by the sword ! 
 
Ill 
 
 So shalt thou own thy Savior, King, and find 
 His power; so shall the nations own how great 
 Thy youth and virtue, that could slough the weight 
 That crushed the world, and dare be free and kind; 
 So shall the peace of his untrammelled mind 
 Eule thine own inward strifes of social hate; 
 So shalt thou plant that universal state 
 Wherein his love shall be at last enshrined. 
 
 So shalt thou bring again the angels' song; 
 So shall the star be seen again in Heaven ; 
 So shall the nations look to it and long 
 For the salvation to God's people given; 
 So shall the Savior promised to all earth, 
 Through thy pure travail have his modern birth ! 
 
IV 
 
 Thou shalt not find Him till thou be so great 
 To give Him to the world: his truth, his peace, 
 Are known in sharing; evermore increase 
 From man to man, from loyal state to state; 
 For they may not be bound, but still must wait 
 Fulfillment till the last despite shall cease 
 And all men freely share them. Yet if these 
 Things seem a mystery, know, before too late : 
 
 If states of thine may not lift up the hand 
 Against thee ; if thy striker may not reach 
 To strike with steel; if tribes that in thee stand 
 May war no more, but dwell as friend with friend; 
 Then thou must practice this that thou dost teach 
 And say among the nations, "War must end !" 
 
 10 
 
Lo, now, how Christ doth overcome the world! 
 
 Yet we, who bear his name, are feard of it; 
 
 Yea, tremble, and conform ourselves to fit 
 
 Its will, who should be transformed and unfurled 
 
 In power to do his righteousness, who hurled 
 
 The planets in their orbits, and who lit 
 
 The spark of life within us, infinite, 
 
 To blaze when systems are in ashes curled ! 
 
 But if we dared be free in Him, and say 
 Among the nations, "He is King indeed, 
 "And by his truth alone will we be freed!" 
 There's not a kindred the blue ocean laves 
 Would dare to stand before us, more than they 
 Who went to capture Him with swords and staves! 
 
 11 
 
VI 
 
 Ye nations of the earth, have ye not said, 
 i<r We will increase onr strength with ships and guns" ? 
 Yet now do they consume your little ones, 
 And while ye think to make your bullets red 
 In brothers' blood, in your own house lie dead 
 Your children; for God chastens so his sons, 
 Bringing the ill they practice whence it runs 
 Back to recoil at last on their own head. 
 
 But if ye once had known your Father, God, 
 
 Ye could not lift the hand against your brother; 
 
 And if ye once had felt his chastening rod, 
 
 Would leave to Him the vengeance; if ye knew 
 
 The mighty fortress He hath given to you 
 
 In these, your children, ye would ask no other. 
 
 12 
 
VII 
 
 Behold the missionaries of Christ's cross, 
 
 That go before the merchant ventures ! These, 
 
 More than all ships of war, bring in the peace 
 
 Of the world, and what they spend is never loss. 
 
 Think, if we gave the heathen but our dross 
 
 Of vice and war-craft, how their hordes would seize 
 
 Our weapons to despoil us, and appease 
 
 With smell of our spilt blood their lustful joss! 
 
 Nay, we must give them Christ, or on our head 
 Their sin shall be, and God unto their strife 
 Shall give us up to chastisement; our pelf 
 Shall profit us no more, when we are dead : 
 For selfishness doth still defeat itself, 
 And sacrificial love is fount of life. 
 
 13 
 
VIII 
 
 I sing the soldiers of the coming wars, 
 
 The wars of God and man, of common weal 
 
 And individual glory. Not with steel 
 
 Nor for destruction, pass their shining corps 
 
 Where all our modern tumult sweats and roars; 
 
 But girt with faith, love, prayer, — how e'er they feel 
 
 The iron in their own souls — to save and heal, 
 
 And Christ leads on, who all to God restores! 
 
 These be thy heroes, my Country ! They 
 Shall wear henceforth thy laurel and thy bay! 
 Thou shalt not give again the crown of thorns 
 To Him who is thy Savior, nor the ray 
 And aureole of glory that adorns 
 His brow to them that pillage and that slay ! 
 
 14 
 
IX 
 
 ? T is not enough, my Land, that thou shouldst cry 
 To Christ to save, but thou must crown Him King 
 Ere He can save thee; thou must dare to fling 
 Thine all on Him and trust Him, live or die, 
 Ere thou canst find his power, or live thereby. 
 Behold, how beautiful his feet, that bring 
 Good news of peace ! Behold Him in the spring 
 Of glorious day, descending from on high! 
 
 Hail Him, my Country ! Crown Him, whom so long 
 Men dared deny the crown ! Whom God doth crown 
 In Heaven before the angels, who with song 
 Acclaim Him King forever, casting down 
 Their diadems before Him, choosing Him 
 Before all glory in themselves grown dim! 
 
 15 
 
Hail Him ! For it is He who left his throne 
 In glory and came down to earth and men, 
 To lift them with his own hands up again 
 Into that heavenly light that was his own 
 Before the world was ! Hail Him, who has known 
 Our sorrows, shared our burdens, borne our pain, 
 In his own body — yea, our sins amain — 
 O'ercoming all in his love's might alone ! 
 
 Hail Him victorious! Hail Him conqueror 
 
 And King forever ! Own Him with thy whole 
 
 Heart, my Country, even as the soul 
 
 That lives by his great life ! Have thou no shame 
 
 To speak of Him before the kings that war, 
 
 But let the whole earth hear thee praise his name! 
 
 1G 
 
XI 
 
 Crown Him with many crowns, United States! 
 A crown for every one — one crown for all! 
 Crown Him, ye thousand cities, great and small! 
 Crown Him, ye villages and farms, whose gates 
 Teem with the future ! Crown Him, Magistrates, 
 Governors, President! Before Him fall 
 And vow yourselves the vassals of his thrall ! 
 Crown Him, each soul that for God's Kingdom waits ! 
 
 Call Him our Counsellor, our mighty God, 
 Our everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, 
 Whose Kingdom in our hearts can never cease; 
 Who plants the life of God in us to grow 
 And bring forth healing for the nations — 
 He shall bring down all Heaven upon our sod ! 
 
 17 
 
XII 
 
 Proclaim Him, Stars and Stripes, upon all seas; 
 
 Till men shall say throughout thy voyagings, 
 
 " ? Tis Christ's undying love the banner flings 
 
 "Forth in its red ; his purity decrees 
 
 "In its white ; in its stars of Heaven, his truth. With 
 
 these 
 "Great glories wrapt, their eagle soars, who brings 
 '* Christ's healing in the spreading of his wings, 
 "Where farthest rivers pour, or oceans freeze !" 
 
 thou shalt live, my Country, and be free, 
 
 By Him alone, whose power alone can save ! 
 
 And if thou lose Him, thou hast but the grave! 
 
 And if thou fail Him now in craven fears, 
 
 And fail the world his love would save through thee, 
 
 Then God must try again, a thousand years ! 
 
 18 
 
XIII 
 
 Lo, how we are entangled in the coil 
 
 Of precedents ! How we hedge up our way 
 
 With Heaven-high walls of what men do and sa\, 
 
 Until we see not God! How we embroil 
 
 Us with conformity — an endless toil! — 
 
 Till in the labrinth we are spent and stay, 
 
 Hopeless to be delivered, afraid to pray, — 
 
 Trusting at last what doth our strength despoil! 
 
 But God's not so ! For then He lets us die 
 And calls a child and sets him in the midst, 
 And a new nation. So of old Thou didst, 
 God ! So dost Thou till thy Kingdom come ! 
 How long, Lord, how long? And shall we lie 
 Us down so mazed and spent and overcome? 
 
 19 
 
XIV 
 
 So shall we die, my Country; yea, and thou, 
 That gloriest in thy strength and stretchest thee 
 As a young giant forth from sea to sea — 
 So shalt thou perish, if thou choose not now 
 Thy God against the world. For if thou bow 
 To the world's idols, thou shalt surely see 
 The bitter doom of their captivity 
 And drink thy sin in that despairing slough! 
 
 But now, whilst thou art young, is time to choose 
 As for the lands, let them do what they will; 
 But as for thee, with all thy heart, choose God; 
 For none can stand against his righteous rod, 
 And they who seek its shelter cannot lose 
 The comfort, the green fields, and waters still. 
 
 20 
 
XV 
 
 Rejoice, my Land, and glory in thy youth ! 
 Be thou not as the nations, dead in sin; 
 But be alive to God, renewed within 
 To know his will and overflow in ruth 
 Unto the world's end. Suffer not the tooth 
 Of time to prey upon thee, nor begin 
 To feel thy tides set inward, but still win 
 A higher freedom through a higher truth ! 
 
 God bless thee ! God be in thee ! God set on 
 
 Thy courts his heavenly glory; give Christ's face 
 
 To shine on every child, in every place 
 
 Of thy dominion; give thee righteousness 
 
 And peace, within, without; give, through his Son, 
 
 All power to thee to curse not, but to bless ! 
 
 21 
 
XVI 
 
 America ! New World ! Empire of Man ! 
 
 Hope of the nations! Land of destiny, 
 
 Wherein the whole world looks to be set free ! 
 
 Think'st thou to bind the races with a ban 
 
 Of peace, who hated since the world began? 
 
 For black, red, brown, white, yellow, meet in thee; 
 
 And wilt thou teach them all one fealty? 
 
 And be to all one mother, if thou can! 
 
 Hope not to do it by any earthly thing; 
 
 But only by Himself, who is the King 
 
 Of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Almighty Son 
 
 Of God and man, whose love hath power to bring 
 
 All men of every race and clime in one 
 
 Unto his Father, till his will be done ! 
 
 22 
 
XVII 
 
 for the prophet's vision to discern 
 
 The things of thy dear peace, to read for thee 
 
 The inner secret of all history ! 
 
 for the will in thee to look and learn! 
 
 What were those mighty forces that could burn 
 
 Up nations into empires ? — Look and see : 
 
 Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and he, 
 
 The fierce Mogul, Napoleon, — each in turn! 
 
 Their spirits gone, how soon their realms decayed! 
 
 And shall we take the world to us and think 
 
 To stand, one body, with no soul arrayed 
 
 Therein as King of all? The devil enticed 
 
 Us to this thought, who would that we should sink 
 
 To ruin with the rest, — but crown we Christ! 
 
 23 
 
XVIII 
 
 Think you if those six thousand murderers 
 Who wrought their deeds of blood in us last year 
 Had had the spirit of Christ, we had had fear? 
 Think you if those uncounted worshippers 
 Of lust and mammon which our age incurs 
 Through ignorance of God, had dared to rear 
 Their bloody idols up amongst us here, 
 If we had had his spirit in us, sirs? 
 
 Hear, my Brothers! Iron bars nor laws 
 
 Shall ever save us, but his secret art; 
 
 And love of Him is more than all police 
 
 And ships of war to keep our realm in peace; 
 
 And this is our great policy, to cause 
 
 Each child to know and love Him in his heart ! 
 
 24 
 
XIX 
 
 that the perfect faith would issue here ! 
 That scales of doubt and selfishness and pride, 
 That blind our eyes, would fall before the tide 
 Of rising light wherein Christ doth appear 
 Alone, supreme, divinely near and dear 
 To each and all; until we did abide 
 In Him, one body, instinct and glorified 
 By his great life and love, that cast out fear! 
 
 Christ, Desire of Nations ! God and man ! 
 We long for Thee! Our heart and flesh cry out 
 For Thee, till Thou be formed in us, our Son 
 And Savior, our Immanuel ! We can 
 But seek Thee till we find Thee, till all doubt 
 Be vanquished, and thy glorious Kingdom won! 
 
 25 
 
XX 
 
 Lo, thou, my Land, art God's new Israel, 
 And He has held, close in his counsels furled, 
 Till thy full time, this Canaan of the world, 
 And called thy children forth therein to dwell 
 From the world's bondage, that Immanuel 
 Might reign in thee at last, and throngs that swirled 
 About thee should return through all the world, 
 Bearing his blessings forth, that in thee well. 
 
 Thy federal law is his great Kingdom's law; 
 
 Thy dream of one in many, his dream of 
 
 The race; if He reign in thee and draw 
 
 All men to Him, his glorious life and love 
 
 Shall loose the law, the dream, in life, — send forth 
 
 His liberty of love through all the earth ! 
 
 26 
 
XXI 
 
 If we must fight, my Country, let it be 
 For sake of love and peace and duty plain ; 
 Let history not say we filled with slain 
 For vengeance or vainglory, vauntingly, 
 One field of earth; but sorrowing, as he 
 Who smites his son to guide him and restrain, 
 And as the world's Redeemer, for our gain, 
 Suffered and died upon Mount Calvary. 
 
 So shall our soul be clear of blood, save the 
 Pure blood of his great travail, which He lays 
 On us to bear with Him in these last days ; 
 Our sons who die in such a cause shall be 
 The blessed martyrs of his Kingdom's rise 
 And come again with Him from Paradise. 
 
 27 
 
XXII 
 
 Ye peoples who profess to worship Christ, 
 
 Ye kings who claim Him for your Overlord, 
 
 Ye parliaments who hear his saving word, 
 
 Ye souls who live by what He sacrificed, — 
 
 In what an evil hour are ye enticed 
 
 Of this world's Prince to lift the murderous sword 
 
 Against each other, — ye, whose treasures horde 
 
 A love that for the world's peace had sufficed! 
 
 Are ye not traitors to your Sovereign King, 
 Whom He would bring in one, to do this thing? 
 Who then shall save you when the heathen laugh ? 
 Hope ye yet in the sword, to live thereby ? 
 The sword, wherein ye trust, shall turn and quaff 
 Your blood, and by it ye shall surely die! 
 
 28 
 
XXIII 
 
 I said in haste, "0 for the famine or 
 
 "The pestilence, to make us think on God!" 
 
 I knew not what I said, nor how his rod 
 
 Would smite the nations with this awful war ! 
 
 If we have need of signs, what look we for 
 
 More than this bubbling blood, by blind hate sod, 
 
 Dishonored and cast out on every clod, 
 
 Which should be of Christ's life inheritor ? 
 
 be thou wiser, my Beloved : know 
 
 They live by Him in whom his spirit dwells 
 
 Of faith arid love ! They triumph who dare show 
 
 The godlike deeds thereof ! But Satan quells 
 
 Their valor, and they perish in defeat 
 
 Who doubt with doubt and hate with hatred meet! 
 
 29 
 
XXIV 
 
 How shall we pray for them, God, who say 
 They are of Christ, and do the works of Cain, 
 Who mind no more that they are men, nor chain 
 Within their bosoms the wild beasts of prey, 
 But let them forth to ravish and to slay, 
 Putting their trust in Satan and his train? 
 Yet are we of their kindred and their strain — 
 For their peace and our own, we can but pray! 
 
 Yet not for peace alone, but righteousness 
 
 And truth, wherein are peace that shall endure, 
 
 And love, which is alone the perfect cure 
 
 Of all their ills and ours, the potent law 
 
 Of Heaven's Kingdom, that must surely draw 
 
 The nations to its sway, ere Thou canst bless. 
 
 30 
 
XXV 
 
 We made such outward show of being fair, 
 Were so untroubled, so self -gratified, 
 We liked no more to hear what foul germs plied, 
 Of the old plague, within us, nor were 'ware 
 How sore we needed a Physician's care, 
 While the hid ulcer gathered in our side ; 
 But now it hath burst forth and we can hide 
 No more our shame, which to the world is bare. 
 
 Gone is the lying refuge, the false calm 
 And pride ! In utter helplessness we cry, 
 "Is there in Christendom no healing balm, 
 "And no Physician there with saving skill? 
 "God of all mercy, hear us, ere we die ! 
 "Send Him to us, that we may do his will!" 
 
 31 
 
XXVI 
 
 I see through this most sacrilegious feast 
 Of lust and blood, a hand come on the wall 
 Of modern palaces and write the fall 
 Of kings; for from the greatest to the least, 
 They have been weighed in balances and ceased 
 From honor, having been found wanting, all, 
 Bringing the world again to brutish brawl: 
 Therefore shall they be cast out as the beast, 
 
 Until they know that God is more than they; 
 And these their kingdoms God shall take away 
 From them and give to Him who rules by right 
 Divine of love, and by its perfect might; 
 Who leads his subjects into peace, not strife, 
 And suffers death, Himself, to give them life. 
 
 32 
 
XXVII 
 
 Though thou must suffer, my Beloved, yet 
 
 Stand fast in Christ's great spirit, reaching out 
 
 Strong hands of love and prayer; though they flout 
 
 Or wound thee, never falter, nor forget 
 
 Thy Savior, who is more than thou, but let 
 
 His Voice ring through thy voice with instant shout 
 
 To pierce the maddened tumult and the rout, 
 
 "I am your peace ! I paid its bloody debt !" 
 
 The world shall hear that Voice ! Believe and love ! 
 
 Fail not thy Lord nor them in this dread hour ! 
 
 He shall not fail thee, but will give thee power 
 
 To be new-born into his Kingdom. They 
 
 In after time shall call thee servant of 
 
 Our God, and bringer of his Kingdom's sway! 
 
XXVIII 
 
 The earth is God's, the continents and seas, 
 The islands and the inland streams and lakes, 
 Each gloomy fern and golden fin that shakes 
 In water, each glad wing that beats the breeze 
 Of air, all ores and gems that melt and freeze 
 In hidden ducts of mountains; for He makes 
 Them all, and all the seeds of life, and wakes 
 Anew each year the beasts and grass and trees. 
 
 And ye, Nations, do but hold in trust 
 
 A little while this wealth of his for all 
 
 His children, and should in one council call 
 
 On Him for strength to minister such stores 
 
 In honor ; but ye slay the heirs and thrust 
 
 Them forth, to seize the inheritance for yours! 
 
 34 
 
XXIX 
 
 Above the noise of battle and the cry 
 
 Of wounded and of dying, the vast groans 
 
 Of wasted provinces, the gathered moans 
 
 Of widows and of orphans, through the sky 
 
 I hear a Voice of lamentation high 
 
 As Heaven, a Voice of love and tears whose tones 
 
 Bewailed of old the city's doomed stones, 
 
 That would not own her King when He was nigh. 
 
 How oft' would I have gathered you, States, 
 
 Races, in my saving Kingdom's fold, 
 
 But ye would not!— But still without the gates 
 
 Slew Me, nor knew your day of visitation, 
 
 Desiring this day, whereof I foretold 
 
 That it should bring such wrath and desolation ! 
 
 35 
 
XXX 
 
 Has Christ failed, then, in Europe? Nay, but her 
 
 Philosophers, her diplomats, her courts 
 
 Have failed Him, trusting not his heavenly forts 
 
 Of faith and love, nor daring from them stir 
 
 In valor of his cross, to minister 
 
 His life. Therefore for refuge she resorts 
 
 To fear and hate, and all her host reports 
 
 In camp of the Eternal Murderer. 
 
 Christ cannot fail, but He is still the Prince 
 
 Of Peace. The Prince of this World faileth since 
 
 The world began, and he shall always fail; 
 
 He is the Enemy and Christ, the Friend, 
 
 Who by his love shall mightily prevail 
 
 And of whose Kingdom there shall be no end. 
 
 36 
 
XXXI 
 
 Think we that those on whom this tower of ill 
 
 Descends, whose blood is mingled thus in vain 
 
 With hopeless sacrifices, who so strain 
 
 To bring forth good from evil, and fulfil 
 
 Their own destruction while they waste and kill, 
 
 Think we that they above all lands profane 
 
 God's will, and so in chastisement obtain 
 
 His judgment, from which we are scatheless still? 
 
 I tell you nay, but except we repent, 
 
 Ourselves shall likewise perish : for we feed 
 
 Bread of our children to the war-god's greed 
 
 And with unholy mammon are defiled, 
 
 And turn away the face of our own child 
 
 From Christ, and know not our impoverishment! 
 
 37 
 
XXXII 
 
 America, behold how the world hangs 
 This day upon thy virtue — thine alone; 
 How Europe reaps the whirlwind she hath sown 
 Of hellish hate, that unto Heaven clangs, 
 Mocking her God and Savior's travail pangs 
 For men's redemption ; how the heathen groan 
 In darkness by such darkness overblown, 
 Meeting therein the serpent's poison fangs! 
 
 purge thyself! fall before the cross! 
 
 clasp it to thy breast, and count but loss 
 
 The will and pride of men, if Christ appear 
 
 In thee with love that God's own bosom gives, 
 
 And never can be quelled, but giving, lives, 
 
 And brings earth's blackest night all Heaven's cheer ! 
 
 38 
 
XXXIII 
 
 God bless our President ! In such an hour, 
 When warring nations, blind with tears and blood, 
 Overmastered by fierce passions as a flood, 
 Confront the last dread terror in the power 
 Of darkness that on all their lands doth lower, 
 And see his face among the stars that stud 
 The sky, serene, above the stormy scud — 
 God make of him a refuge and a tower ! 
 
 As thou hast hope in God, America, 
 And in his Kingdom, pray for him of yours 
 Who stands before the nations and implores 
 That hope; that heavenly grace and stamina 
 May be in him, to make the matchless worth 
 Of Christ, the King, appear upon the earth! 
 
 39 
 
XXXIV 
 
 The minds of kings are dark ; their thoughts are cast 
 In molds of a dead era, when they traced 
 Their way to thrones through wars, and ever braced 
 Themselves thereon by wars; they still hold fast 
 To that unholy refuge of the past, 
 Not knowing how a new age hath effaced 
 Their covenant with death, and firmly based 
 The strength of nations in Heaven's life, at last. 
 
 But we are of the future ; we are free ; 
 
 And looking from the future's height, we see 
 
 A new United States, of Europe, rise 
 
 Out of her ashes and her agonies, 
 
 And bid her hail, and cry the King of Kings 
 
 Hasten to gather her beneath his wings! 
 
 40 
 
XXXV 
 
 No kingdom built in force can ever stand, 
 
 For force is outward and can never reach 
 
 The heart, but still the heart will rise and teach 
 
 Its impulse and its passion to the hand ; 
 
 But God hath laid his Kingdom, deep and grand, 
 
 In love, and there's no language and no speech 
 
 Where the still voice of love may not beseech 
 
 And win men's hearts to its divine command. 
 
 Who, then, is the world-statesman who foresees 
 That Kingdom come, and brings its reign of peace? 
 'Tis he who takes Christ's cross and hides it deep 
 In human hearts, while nations wake and sleep, 
 And the supreme world-wisdom is that of 
 His lavish and uncalculating love. 
 
 41 
 
XXXVI 
 
 The soul is infinite : the whole world lies, 
 
 Of peace and discord, hope and fear, praise, blame, 
 
 Heavenly glory and infernal shame, 
 
 Folden within its possibilities; 
 
 And he who scorns the spirit is not wise ; 
 
 For out of it all strength and weakness came, 
 
 And it alone survives the wreck and flame, 
 
 And on it still the social pillars rise. 
 
 And I have seen Heaven's Kingdom fully come 
 
 Within a soul disordered and accursed 
 
 As this old, sin-sick, warring world, at worst, 
 
 Bringing it forth with power to a new birth 
 
 Of life and peace ; and this is all my sum 
 
 Of hope to see that Kingdom come on earth. 
 
 42 
 
XXXVII 
 
 It seems that this so solid-looking ground 
 
 Is but a thin crust, yet, o'er fires of Hell 
 
 That rage still in earth's womb, and none can tell 
 
 What moment they with rushing, roaring sound 
 
 Will burst abroad before him and confound 
 
 The blessed day with smoke and ashes fell, 
 
 Foul fumes and molten streams unstanchable, 
 
 And he and all his hopes therein be drowned. 
 
 For earth's old harlotries still bring forth death 
 
 And men will ne'er be safe upon the earth 
 
 Till she be purged of that infernal birth 
 
 And yield her wholly to the Heavenly Sun 
 
 Of Righteousness, who since the world begun, 
 
 Breathed in her Heaven's life and Heaven's breath. 
 
 43 
 
XXXVIII 
 
 Of old when men were children and conceived 
 Of God as one who loved their little tribe, 
 While other tribes had other gods, to gibe 
 And jeer at theirs, and hate in Heaven grieved 
 Men's souls to dare the slaughter they believed 
 God's will for earth, war was a boast the scribe 
 Could chronicle and poets might ascribe 
 Glory to him who most despite achieved. 
 
 But now men know one God and Father of 
 Them all, one Elder Brother, whose dear love 
 Is Heaven's law for earth : war is revealed 
 A deed most blasphemous, profaning sky 
 And earth, a most unnatural crime, the yield 
 Of perfidy and infidelity. 
 
 44 
 
XXXIX 
 
 This war is from beneath and from above, 
 
 Not of the nations, only, but that same 
 
 Old conflict of the Beast, whose other name 
 
 Is Self, and of the Christ, whose name is Love; 
 
 And men and nations are the spoil thereof; 
 
 For the Beast comes to kill and steal and maime, 
 
 And Christ to heal, to ransom and reclaim, 
 
 And men in ranks of each have ever strove. 
 
 It is the last fierce onslaught of the Beast, 
 
 For now the world sees his jaws drip with slime 
 
 Of its heart's blood, and feels his talons tear 
 
 Its vitals, and its miseries increased 
 
 Past suffering, till turning to Christ's care, 
 
 It trust his saving banners for all time. 
 
 45 
 
XL 
 
 Build no more ships of war, my Land, no more : 
 For we must fight upon Christ's side in this 
 Great strife; but if we cower 'neath guns that hiss 
 With fires of Hell, and trust its cannon's roar, 
 We take the arch-fiend for our commodore, 
 And are already lost, and shall not miss 
 To be dragged down by him to the abyss 
 Wherein the nations perish at our door. 
 
 Heed not thy lying prophets, who are of 
 
 This world; have faith in God, and thou shalt build 
 
 Ships of salvation, and they shall be filled 
 
 With armies of the blood-red cross of love, 
 
 And thou shalt send them east and west, to win 
 
 Christ's peaceful victories o'er death and sin. 
 
 46 
 
XLI 
 
 We can perceive, at last, the world is one, 
 And we shall save ourselves when we have saved 
 The nations, and the way to life is paved 
 Through travail and through sacrifice, and none 
 Shall see God's great salvation 'neath the sun, 
 Save in Christ's dauntless spirit, that once craved 
 To give men life, and through the unseen braved 
 The fear of death, and life immortal won. 
 
 Choose, then, my Land, if thou wilt bear his cross 
 And live, or bear the sword and die. With Christ 
 We suffer, but we reign for evermore; 
 With Satan we shall surely suffer sore 
 And miserably pass from loss to loss 
 And perish with all nations he enticed. 
 
 47 
 
XLII 
 
 'Tis well we should sit down and count the cost, 
 If we be able, with our paltry ten 
 Thousand, to go against a force of men 
 That number twenty thousand in their host; 
 So, if we see no hope, ere they have crossed 
 Our borders, we may send with haste to ken 
 The grim conditions whereon we again 
 May live a little while, ere all be lost. 
 
 Sure we can never do it in the might 
 
 Or power of our own hands, but by the Son 
 
 Of God, and by his Spirit, if we have 
 
 But faith, the battle is already won, 
 
 And the great prize, which is the blessed salve 
 
 Of peace for the whole bleeding world, in sight. 
 
 48 
 
XLIII 
 
 If we would dip our pens in Heaven's fire, 
 
 They would be mightier than the swords of kings; 
 
 If we would pray the prayer of faith, that brings 
 
 Unfailing answer to sincere desire, 
 
 If we would grant God's Spirit to inspire 
 
 Our souls with rapture of eternal things, 
 
 We should lift up our voice as one that sings, 
 
 And walls should fall, and camping hosts expire! 
 
 For God hath sought a nation He could use, 
 One to delight in Him and do his will, 
 But all were faithless, and in hopeless tears 
 Received the due fulfillment of their fears; 
 Last He seeks us — Spirit that endues 
 With might, grant us his purpose to fulfil ! 
 
 49 
 
XLIV 
 
 The tide of time is at the point to turn: 
 The kingdom of this world, that has prevailed 
 Upon the face of the whole earth, has failed, 
 And the great deeps of human passion yearn 
 Toward a Kingdom whose pure glories burn 
 Eternal in the Heavens, — that availed 
 Of old to draw to it the souls it hailed 
 Out from the welter of their brief sojourn. 
 
 Those souls of men are grown a multitude 
 Innumerable, out of every race, 
 People and tribe and tongue, and the strong pull 
 Of that new Kingdom has laid hold for good 
 On the world's center, till with saving grace 
 And knowledge of the Lord all earth be full. 
 
 50 
 
XLV 
 
 It is a time of peril and of power, 
 
 A day of crisis, big with destiny ; 
 
 But the decisive blow of history 
 
 Shall not be dealt with bullets that devour, 
 
 Nor by the lands that use them, but in our 
 
 Free soul, where Christ and Satan mightily 
 
 Wrestle for spiritual victory, 
 
 And we shall say who triumphs in this hour. 
 
 The Past and Future, Hell and Heaven, Christ 
 And Satan, meet in the arena here, 
 And a great cloud of witnesses appear 
 In Heaven and Hell and all the world, to see 
 If we have courage that of old sufficed 
 To overcome the world, and set men free. 
 
 51 
 
XLVI 
 
 If we must die (for life is not more dear 
 Than our most holy cause) then let us die 
 For Heaven, not for Hell, truth, not a lie, 
 And fall into God's arms, who shall appear 
 To raise us from the dead. Yea, let our seer 
 See God, and let him pray, till we descry 
 Those chariots and those horsemen of the sky 
 Who are our only hope, and our last fear. 
 
 I know a warfare calls for lives and blood, 
 Whose soldiers bear no weapon, but the cross, 
 And think him braver who with ardor high 
 Goes forth therein than regiments that toss 
 Their lives to the grim chance of guns. God, 
 In that dear warfare let me fight and die ! 
 
 52 
 
XLVII 
 
 We stand above the nations, and our cause 
 
 Is not our own, but God's, and God hath blessed 
 
 Us mightily and given us his rest, 
 
 And set his Kingdom in our heart, that draws 
 
 The peoples to our bosom from the jaws 
 
 Of that destructive kingdom, east and west, 
 
 That preys upon its children, — that our breast 
 
 Might feed the world, our mouth speak Heaven's laws. 
 
 And thus saith God, America, "If thou 
 "Wilt trust in Me, and put the unclean thing 
 "Away from thee, and take my Son for King, 
 "And let his Kingdom in thee be unfurled, 
 "Thou shalt fear nothing, but shalt witness now 
 "His victory of love o'ercome the world !" 
 
 53 
 
XLVIII 
 
 I know the faith that overcomes the world, 
 Whereat the Prince thereof, who perpetrates 
 Impious war, doth tremble, and the gates 
 Of Hell, that have decoyed the lands, impearled 
 Like gates of Paradise, are rent and hurled 
 To the foul pit they gloze, and human states 
 Confess God's law of love, that animates 
 His Heaven, and surely is on earth unfurled. 
 
 It is the faith of Christ, the Son of God, 
 
 Savior of souls to life forever young, 
 
 Before whose blood-blest rood the blood-curst rod 
 
 Of kings must be laid down; who comes, even now, 
 
 And every eye shall see Him, every tongue 
 
 Confess Him, every knee before Him bow ! 
 
 54 
 
XLIX 
 
 Hark how each king and emperor declares 
 
 That God is on his side — how all appeal 
 
 To God to help them murder, waste and steal! 
 
 But none appeals to Christ, of whom God swears, 
 
 "He is my Son ; hear Him !" and not one dares 
 
 Assert that Christ is on his side, to feel 
 
 The filthy passions of his fiendish zeal; 
 
 And Christ's pure name is not in all their prayers. 
 
 The god they cry to, he is of their own 
 
 Imaginations, yea, a god outgrown, 
 
 And impotent to help as wood or stone; 
 
 But as for the eternal God Christ came 
 
 To show, they know Him not, and to their shame 
 
 They take upon their lips his awful name ! 
 
 55 
 
This last colossal crime of Christendom 
 
 Is fruit of her apostasy and sin 
 
 Of unbelief, for Satan enters in 
 
 When Christ goes out: there is no vacuum 
 
 In spirit, more than flesh, but evils come 
 
 On heels of our denials and begin 
 
 To work a vast destructive woe wherein 
 
 We cry again for faith's palladium. 
 
 Thou art not guiltless of this great transgression, 
 
 My Country ! God give thee to discern 
 
 The meaning of this time, to humble thee, 
 
 To own thy sin, with all thy heart to turn 
 
 To Christ, ere thou be forced to make confession 
 
 Of Him at mouth of Hell's artillery ! 
 
 56 
 
LI 
 
 War is revelation: in an hour 
 
 That men know not, seeds of selfishness, 
 
 Fear, suspicion, envy, they caress 
 
 In their bosoms, grown to unknown power, 
 
 Burst before the world in bloody flower, 
 
 All whose dripping petals reconfess 
 
 That old revelation alterless, 
 
 "Hate is murder," spoke by Truth's Avower. 
 
 War is judgment: from the ripened grain 
 
 It doth pluck the tares at last for burning; 
 
 And above it God, the Judge, is turning 
 
 To destruction bloody men and vain; 
 
 And its sentence is as old as breath 
 
 On this blood-soaked planet: "Sin is death!" 
 
 57 
 
LII 
 
 War is the mailed hand of criminal states 
 
 That strike the helpless down and bind the free 
 
 And build an arrogant supremacy 
 
 Of selfish force; but the just land that waits 
 
 For righteousness and loves God's law, and hates 
 
 Iniquity, builds up his courts, and she 
 
 Shall not be put to shame therein, but He 
 
 Will send his angels forth to guard her gates. 
 
 And she shall prosper and shall have a new 
 
 Supremacy of service, and the word 
 
 Of God shall go forth from her mouth to all 
 
 The lands and not return again unheard, 
 
 But they shall come from east and west to view 
 
 Her great salvation and to own Christ's thrall. 
 
 58 
 
LIII 
 
 What one war settles may another war 
 Unsettle, and what has been won by force 
 May so be lost again, and in the course 
 Of dealing death do nations die; therefore 
 War settles naught, but God is Governor 
 Who made all men one flesh, not to divorce 
 Them from each other, and their last resource 
 Is love, and Christ alone is Conqueror. 
 
 But that is settled which is settled right, 
 And they are free from fear who trust the might 
 Of the Almighty, and they that deal in love, 
 Though they may agonize in blood and tears, 
 Shall never die, but all his power shall prove 
 And live and reign with Christ a thousand years. 
 
 59 
 
LIV 
 
 I take the slur of "peace at any price" 
 
 And wear it unashamed with Him, who, when 
 
 He was reviled, reviled not again, 
 
 But prayed for brutish men who cast their dice 
 
 Upon his blood-stained garments, whose foul cries 
 
 Mocked his great gift of life their narrow ken 
 
 Perceived not, rendering up his soul for men 
 
 To God, a free, obedient sacrifice. 
 
 I count Him strong, who rendered good for ill, 
 
 Love for despite ; I count He overcame 
 
 The world, and proved the glory of God's will, 
 
 The invincibility of faith, the claim 
 
 Of love to love ; I reckon He indeed 
 
 Was free, and by his spirit men are freed. 
 
 60 
 
LV 
 
 It is a day of wrath and reckoning 
 For Europe, but for us a day of pause 
 And testing. Out of every race, as straws 
 Sucked by the wind, or as the needles swing 
 To the pole, we came to share the banqueting 
 The Wonder Worker spread here, and because 
 Our flesh is filled, we hail Him with applause 
 And would take Him by force to make Him King. 
 
 But He withdraws and cries, "'Tis not enough 
 "Ye eat my loaves and fishes ! I am Bread 
 "Of Life ! Ye must eat Me ! My spirit's puff 
 "Must be your breath of life! Ye must pursue 
 "My joy — must clasp the cross whereon I bled, 
 "If ye would have Me to reign over you !" 
 
 61 
 
LVI 
 
 How vainly have we cried "Peace ! Peace !" where no 
 
 Peace was! How vainly shall the nations patch 
 
 A partial, unenforced peace, and snatch 
 
 A little respite ere the whole world flow 
 
 Together in unutterable woe 
 
 Of self-destruction; if all men attach 
 
 Them not to Heaven's Kingdom, to o'ermatch 
 
 All principalities and powers below! 
 
 Know, my Country, this democracy 
 Thou boastest in, is but a half-way house 
 Between the City of Destruction and 
 The Holy City ; and thou canst not stand 
 Therein, but must go back in infamy, 
 Or forward and the Lamb of God espouse ! 
 
 62 
 
LVII 
 
 The sword has pierced my bosom and its pain 
 Consumes me so that outward sights grow dim, 
 But inwardly my soul has sight of Him 
 Who came from God unweaponed and was slain, 
 In whose great death is all our life made plain. 
 all God's lightning-girded cherubim 
 Could but have brought us to destruction grim- 
 He saved us; through his death we life attain! 
 
 Therefore hath God exalted Him on high. 
 
 And thou, my Country, that hast dared to love 
 
 Humanity and peace, so must thou die 
 
 To self and sin and look to God above 
 
 To bring his Kingdom through thee and to raise 
 
 Thee up therein immortal to his praise. 
 
 G3 
 

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