_Last night_, _in sleep_, _beyond the earth’s small zone_, _Adventurously my spirit went alone_, _Past lesser hells and heavens_, _where souls may pause_ _To learn the meaning of death’s larger laws_, _Past astral shapes and bodies of desire_, _Past angels and archangels_, _high and higher_, _Until the pinnacles of space it trod_, _Then_, _awestruck_, _paused_, _hearing the voice of God_. ‘Mortals of earth, for whom I shaped a sphere (So spake the Voice), ‘there rises to Mine ear Eternal praises and eternal pleas. Now, after centuries, I tire of these. Have ye no knowledge of the Maker’s needs, Ye who ask favours and who praise by creeds? Why has it not sufficed That unto this small earth I sent great Christ, Divine expression of the mortal man, To aid my plan? ‘Why ask for more when all has been refused? Why praise My name Who hourly am abused? Why seek for Me or heaven, when in you dwells Hate’s lurid hells? ‘Persistent praises and persuasive pleas— I tire, I tire of these; But I, the Maker of a billion suns, Ask men to stop the blasphemy of guns.’ This is God’s prayer. (_There must be many worlds that give God care_.) THE CRIMES OF PEACE Musing upon the tragedies of earth, Of each new horror which each hour gives birth, Of sins that scar and cruelties that blight Life’s little season, meant for man’s delight, Methought those monstrous and repellent crimes Which hate engenders in war-heated times, To God’s great heart bring not so much despair As other sins which flourish everywhere And in all times—bold sins, bare-faced and proud, Unchecked by college, and by Church allowed, Lifting their lusty heads like ugly weeds Above wise precepts and religious creeds, And growing rank in prosperous days of peace. Think you the evils of this world would cease With war’s cessation? If God’s eyes know tears, Methinks He weeps more for the wasted years And the lost meaning of this earthly life— This big, brief life—than over bloody strife. Yea; there are mean, lean sins God must abhor More than the fatted, blood-drunk monster, War. Looking from His place, looking from His high place among the stars, God saw a peaceful land— A land of fertile fields and golden harvests—and great cities whose innumerable spires pierced the vault of heaven, like bayonets of an invading army. And God said, speaking unto Himself aloud, God said: ‘Peace and power and plenty have I given unto this land; and those tall steeples are monuments to Me. Now let My people reveal themselves, that I may see their works, done in My name in a fertile land of peace. I will withdraw Mine eyes from other worlds that I may behold them, that I may behold these people to whom I sent Christ—they whose innumerable spires pierce My blue vault like bayonets.’