| THE VISION OF CHRIST that thou dost see | |
| Is my vision’s greatest enemy. | |
| Thine has a great hook nose like thine; | |
| Mine has a snub nose like to mine. | |
| Thine is the Friend of all Mankind; | 5 |
| Mine speaks in parables to the blind. | |
| Thine loves the same world that mine hates; | |
| Thy heaven doors are my hell gates. | |
| Socrates taught what Meletus | |
| Loath’d as a nation’s bitterest curse, | 10 |
| And Caiaphas was in his own mind | |
| A benefactor to mankind. | |
| Both read the Bible day and night, | |
| But thou read’st black where I read white. | |
| |
| Was Jesus gentle, or did He | 15 |
| Give any marks of gentility? | |
| When twelve years old He ran away, | |
| And left His parents in dismay. | |
| When after three days’ sorrow found, | |
| Loud as Sinai’s trumpet-sound: | 20 |
| ‘No earthly parents I confess— | |
| My Heavenly Father’s business! | |
| Ye understand not what I say, | |
| And, angry, force Me to obey. | |
| Obedience is a duty then, | 25 |
| And favour gains with God and men.’ | |
| John from the wilderness loud cried; | |
| Satan gloried in his pride. | |
| ‘Come,’ said Satan, ‘come away, | |
| I’ll soon see if you’ll obey! | 30 |
| John for disobedience bled, | |
| But you can turn the stones to bread. | |
| God’s high king and God’s high priest | |
| Shall plant their glories in your breast, | |
| If Caiaphas you will obey, | 35 |
| If Herod you with bloody prey | |
| Feed with the sacrifice, and be | |
| Obedient, fall down, worship me.’ | |
| Thunders and lightnings broke around, | |
| And Jesus’ voice in thunders’ sound: | 40 |
| ‘Thus I seize the spiritual prey. | |
| Ye smiters with disease, make way. | |
| I come your King and God to seize, | |
| Is God a smiter with disease?’ | |
| The God of this world rag’d in vain: | 45 |
| He bound old Satan in His chain, | |
| And, bursting forth, His furious ire | |
| Became a chariot of fire. | |
| Throughout the land He took His course, | |
| And trac’d diseases to their source. | 50 |
| He curs’d the Scribe and Pharisee, | |
| Trampling down hypocrisy. | |
| Where’er His chariot took its way, | |
| There Gates of Death let in the Day, | |
| Broke down from every chain and bar; | 55 |
| And Satan in His spiritual war | |
| Dragg’d at His chariot-wheels: loud howl’d | |
| The God of this world: louder roll’d | |
| The chariot-wheels, and louder still | |
| His voice was heard from Zion’s Hill, | 60 |
| And in His hand the scourge shone bright; | |
| He scourg’d the merchant Canaanite | |
| From out the Temple of His Mind, | |
| And in his body tight does bind | |
| Satan and all his hellish crew; | 65 |
| And thus with wrath He did subdue | |
| The serpent bulk of Nature’s dross, | |
| Till He had nail’d it to the Cross. | |
| He took on sin in the Virgin’s womb | |
| And put it off on the Cross and tomb | 70 |
| To be worshipp’d by the Church of Rome. | |
| |
| Was Jesus humble? or did He | |
| Give any proofs of humility? | |
| Boast of high things with humble tone, | |
| And give with charity a stone? | 75 |
| When but a child He ran away, | |
| And left His parents in dismay. | |
| When they had wander’d three days long | |
| These were the words upon His tongue: | |
| ‘No earthly parents I confess: | 80 |
| I am doing My Father’s business.’ | |
| When the rich learnèd Pharisee | |
| Came to consult Him secretly, | |
| Upon his heart with iron pen | |
| He wrote ‘Ye must be born again.’ | 85 |
| He was too proud to take a bribe; | |
| He spoke with authority, not like a Scribe. | |
| He says with most consummate art | |
| ‘Follow Me, I am meek and lowly of heart, | |
| As that is the only way to escape | 90 |
| The miser’s net and the glutton’s trap.’ | |
| What can be done with such desperate fools | |
| Who follow after the heathen schools? | |
| I was standing by when Jesus died; | |
| What I call’d humility, they call’d pride. | 95 |
| He who loves his enemies betrays his friends. | |
| This surely is not what Jesus intends; | |
| But the sneaking pride of heroic schools, | |
| And the Scribes’ and Pharisees’ virtuous rules; | |
| For He acts with honest, triumphant pride, | 100 |
| And this is the cause that Jesus dies. | |
| He did not die with Christian ease, | |
| Asking pardon of His enemies: | |
| If He had, Caiaphas would forgive; | |
| Sneaking submission can always live. | 105 |
| He had only to say that God was the Devil, | |
| And the Devil was God, like a Christian civil; | |
| Mild Christian regrets to the Devil confess | |
| For affronting him thrice in the wilderness; | |
| He had soon been bloody Caesar’s elf, | 110 |
| And at last he would have been Caesar himself, | |
| Like Dr. Priestly and Bacon and Newton— | |
| Poor spiritual knowledge is not worth a button | |
| For thus the Gospel Sir Isaac confutes: | |
| ‘God can only be known by His attributes; | 115 |
| And as for the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, | |
| Or of Christ and His Father, it’s all a boast | |
| And pride, and vanity of the imagination, | |
| That disdains to follow this world’s fashion.’ | |
| To teach doubt and experiment | 120 |
| Certainly was not what Christ meant. | |
| What was He doing all that time, | |
| From twelve years old to manly prime? | |
| Was He then idle, or the less | |
| About His Father’s business? | 125 |
| Or was His wisdom held in scorn | |
| Before His wrath began to burn | |
| In miracles throughout the land, | |
| That quite unnerv’d the Seraph band? | |
| If He had been Antichrist, Creeping Jesus, | 130 |
| He’d have done anything to please us; | |
| Gone sneaking into synagogues, | |
| And not us’d the Elders and Priests like dogs; | |
| But humble as a lamb or ass | |
| Obey’d Himself to Caiaphas. | 135 |
| God wants not man to humble himself: | |
| That is the trick of the Ancient Elf. | |
| This is the race that Jesus ran: | |
| Humble to God, haughty to man, | |
| Cursing the Rulers before the people | 140 |
| Even to the Temple’s highest steeple, | |
| And when He humbled Himself to God | |
| Then descended the cruel rod. | |
| ‘If Thou Humblest Thyself, Thou humblest Me. | |
| Thou also dwell’st in Eternity. | 145 |
| Thou art a Man: God is no more: | |
| Thy own Humanity learn to adore, | |
| For that is My spirit of life. | |
| Awake, arise to spiritual strife, | |
| And Thy revenge abroad display | 150 |
| In terrors at the last Judgement Day. | |
| God’s mercy and long suffering | |
| Is but the sinner to judgement to bring. | |
| Thou on the Cross for them shalt pray— | |
| And take revenge at the Last Day.’ | 155 |
| Jesus replied, and thunders hurl’d: | |
| ‘I never will pray for the world. | |
| Once I did so when I pray’d in the Garden; | |
| I wish’d to take with Me a bodily pardon.’ | |
| Can that which was of woman born, | 160 |
| In the absence of the morn, | |
| When the Soul fell into sleep, | |
| And Archangels round it weep, | |
| Shooting out against the light | |
| Fibres of a deadly night, | 165 |
| Reasoning upon its own dark fiction, | |
| In doubt which is self-contradiction? | |
| Humility is only doubt, | |
| And does the sun and moon blot out, | |
| Rooting over with thorns and stems | 170 |
| The buried soul and all its gems. | |
| This life’s five windows of the soul | |
| Distorts the Heavens from pole to pole, | |
| And leads you to believe a lie | |
| When you see with, not thro’, the eye | 175 |
| That was born in a night, to perish in a night, | |
| When the soul slept in the beams of light. | |
| |
| Did Jesus teach doubt? or did He | |
| Give any lessons of philosophy, | |
| Charge Visionaries with deceiving, | 180 |
| Or call men wise for not believing?… | |
| |
| Was Jesus born of a Virgin pure | |
| With narrow soul and looks demure? | |
| If He intended to take on sin | |
| The Mother should an harlot been, | 185 |
| Just such a one as Magdalen, | |
| With seven devils in her pen. | |
| Or were Jew virgins still more curs’d, | |
| And more sucking devils nurs’d? | |
| Or what was it which He took on | 190 |
| That He might bring salvation? | |
| A body subject to be tempted, | |
| From neither pain nor grief exempted; | |
| Or such a body as might not feel | |
| The passions that with sinners deal? | 195 |
| Yes, but they say He never fell. | |
| Ask Caiaphas; for he can tell.— | |
| ‘He mock’d the Sabbath, and He mock’d | |
| The Sabbath’s God, and He unlock’d | |
| The evil spirits from their shrines, | 200 |
| And turn’d fishermen to divines; | |
| O’erturn’d the tent of secret sins, | |
| And its golden cords and pins, | |
| In the bloody shrine of war | |
| Pour’d around from star to star,— | 205 |
| Halls of justice, hating vice, | |
| Where the Devil combs his lice. | |
| He turn’d the devils into swine | |
| That He might tempt the Jews to dine; | |
| Since which, a pig has got a look | 210 |
| That for a Jew may be mistook. | |
| “Obey your parents.”—What says He? | |
| “Woman, what have I to do with thee? | |
| No earthly parents I confess: | |
| I am doing my Father’s business.” | 215 |
| He scorn’d Earth’s parents, scorn’d Earth’s God, | |
| And mock’d the one and the other’s rod; | |
| His seventy Disciples sent | |
| Against Religion and Government— | |
| They by the sword of Justice fell, | 220 |
| And Him their cruel murderer tell. | |
| He left His father’s trade to roam, | |
| A wand’ring vagrant without home; | |
| And thus He others’ labour stole, | |
| That He might live above control. | 225 |
| The publicans and harlots He | |
| Selected for His company, | |
| And from the adulteress turn’d away | |
| God’s righteous law, that lost its prey.’ | |
| Was Jesus chaste? or did He | 230 |
| Give any lessons of chastity? | |
| The Morning blushèd fiery red: | |
| Mary was found in adulterous bed; | |
| Earth groan’d beneath, and Heaven above | |
| Trembled at discovery of Love. | 235 |
| Jesus was sitting in Moses’ chair. | |
| They brought the trembling woman there. | |
| Moses commands she be ston’d to death. | |
| What was the sound of Jesus’ breath? | |
| He laid His hand on Moses’ law; | 240 |
| The ancient Heavens, in silent awe, | |
| Writ with curses from pole to pole, | |
| All away began to roll. | |
| The Earth trembling and naked lay | |
| In secret bed of mortal clay; | 245 |
| On Sinai felt the Hand Divine | |
| Pulling back the bloody shrine; | |
| And she heard the breath of God, | |
| As she heard by Eden’s flood: | |
| ‘Good and Evil are no more! | 250 |
| Sinai’s trumpets cease to roar! | |
| Cease, finger of God, to write! | |
| The Heavens are not clean in Thy sight. | |
| Thou art good, and Thou alone; | |
| Nor may the sinner cast one stone. | 255 |
| To be good only, is to be | |
| A God or else a Pharisee. | |
| Thou Angel of the Presence Divine, | |
| That didst create this Body of Mine, | |
| Wherefore hast thou writ these laws | 260 |
| And created Hell’s dark jaws? | |
| My Presence I will take from thee: | |
| A cold leper thou shalt be. | |
| Tho’ thou wast so pure and bright | |
| That Heaven was impure in thy sight, | 265 |
| Tho’ thy oath turn’d Heaven pale, | |
| Tho’ thy covenant built Hell’s jail, | |
| Tho’ thou didst all to chaos roll | |
| With the Serpent for its soul, | |
| Still the breath Divine does move, | 270 |
| And the breath Divine is Love. | |
| Mary, fear not! Let me see | |
| The seven devils that torment thee. | |
| Hide not from My sight thy sin, | |
| That forgiveness thou may’st win. | 275 |
| Has no man condemnèd thee?’ | |
| ‘No man, Lord.’ ‘Then what is he | |
| Who shall accuse thee? Come ye forth, | |
| Fallen fiends of heavenly birth, | |
| That have forgot your ancient love, | 280 |
| And driven away my trembling Dove. | |
| You shall bow before her feet; | |
| You shall lick the dust for meat; | |
| And tho’ you cannot love, but hate, | |
| Shall be beggars at Love’s gate. | 285 |
| What was thy love? Let Me see it; | |
| Was it love or dark deceit?’ | |
| ‘Love too long from me has fled; | |
| ’Twas dark deceit, to earn my bread; | |
| ’Twas covet, or ’twas custom, or | 290 |
| Some trifle not worth caring for; | |
| That they may call a shame and sin | |
| Love’s temple that God dwelleth in, | |
| And hide in secret hidden shrine | |
| The naked Human Form Divine, | 295 |
| And render that a lawless thing | |
| On which the Soul expands its wing. | |
| But this, O Lord, this was my sin, | |
| When first I let these devils in, | |
| In dark pretence to chastity | 300 |
| Blaspheming Love, blaspheming Thee, | |
| Thence rose secret adulteries, | |
| And thence did covet also rise. | |
| My sin Thou hast forgiven me; | |
| Canst Thou forgive my blasphemy? | 305 |
| Canst Thou return to this dark hell, | |
| And in my burning bosom dwell? | |
| And canst Thou die that I may live? | |
| And canst Thou pity and forgive?’ | |
| Then roll’d the shadowy Man away | 310 |
| From the limbs of Jesus, to make them His prey, | |
| An ever devouring appetite, | |
| Glittering with festering venoms bright; | |
| Crying ‘Crucify this cause of distress, | |
| Who don’t keep the secrets of holiness! | 315 |
| The mental powers by diseases we bind; | |
| But He heals the deaf, the dumb, and the blind. | |
| Whom God has afflicted for secret ends, | |
| He comforts and heals and calls them friends.’ | |
| But, when Jesus was crucified, | 320 |
| Then was perfected His galling pride. | |
| In three nights He devour’d His prey, | |
| And still He devours the body of clay; | |
| For dust and clay is the Serpent’s meat, | |
| Which never was made for Man to eat. | 325 |
| |
| Seeing this False Christ, in fury and passion | |
| I made my voice heard all over the nation. | |
| What are those… | |
| |
| I am sure this Jesus will not do, | |
| Either for Englishman or Jew. | 330 |
