Bees in Amber: A Little Book of Thoughtful Verse — John Shaqi
Bees in Amber: A Little Book of Thoughtful VerseOxenham, John
Religion
Bees in Amber: A Little Book of Thoughtful Verse
Oxenham, John
Poetry
All the people waited trembling, stood afar off pale and trembling,
While Kapiolani, fearless, climbed up to the lake of fire,
With the fiery glow all round her, with a heavenly light about her.
Shining with a radiance brighter than since time began had shone
From the Lake of Ceaseless Burnings, from the dreadful lake of fire.
"Here," she cried, "I pluck your berries, Pele,--and I give you none!
See! I eat your sacred berries, Pele,--and I give you none!
Pele, here I break your tabus! Come, with all your dreadful fires!
Burn me, Pele! I defy you!--Pele! Pele! Pele! come!"
Come now, Pele, or for ever own that you are overcome!
"Pele comes not. Is she sleeping? Is she wandering to-day?
Is she busy with her burnings? Has the goddess nought to say?
Hear me, friends!--There is no Pele! One true God alone there is.
His, this mountain! His, these burnings! You, and I, and all
things,--His!
Goodness, Mercy, Loving-Kindness, Life Eternal--all are His!
"From this day, let no man tremble, when he feels the mountain shake!
From this day, no man or maiden shall be killed for Pele's sake!
From this day, we break the thraldom of the dreadful lake of fire.
From this day, we pass for ever from the scourge of Pele's rod.--
From this day, Thou, Lord Jehovah, be our one and only God!"
THEY COME!
From North and South, and East and West,
They come!
The sorely tried, the much oppressed,
Their Faith and Love to manifest,
They come!
They come to tell of work well done,
They come to tell of kingdoms won,
To worship at the Great White Throne,
They come!
In a noble consecration,
With a sound of jubilation.
They come! They come!
Through tribulations and distress,
They come!
Through perils great and bitterness,
Through persecutions pitiless,
They come!
They come by paths the martyrs trod,
They come from underneath the rod,
Climbing through darkness up to God,
They come!
Out of mighty tribulation,
With a sound of jubilation,
They come! They come!
From every land beneath the sun,
They come!
To tell of mighty victories won;
Unto the Father through the Son,
They come!
They come--the victors in the fight,
They come--the blind restored to sight,
From deepest Darkness into Light;
They come!
In a holy exaltation,
With a sound of jubilation,
They come! They come!
PROCESSIONALS
NORTH
We come from the gloom of the shadowy trail
Out away on the fringe of the Night,
Where no man could tell, when the darkness fell,
If his eyes would behold the light.
To--the--Night,--
To--the--Night,--
To the darkness and the sorrow of the Night,--
Came--the--Light,
Came--the--Light,
Came the Wonder and the Glory of the Light.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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