The poor idolator expects to gain In special favors from the god he owns; He mouths his prayers expecting to obtain Some kind of blessing through his pleading tones, While bowing low upon his marrow-bones, And has no thought of principle or law; He thinks his very abjectness atones For all offenses, and he stands in awe Lest he offend the priest who smites him with his jaw. Idolatry but feeds the soul on stones, And makes it fear the living and the dead; It worships arbitrary power in bones From which all power to harm or bless has fled; It puts a halo round some dead man's head And worships him as one whose blood atones For all the sins the human race hath bred; It fills the air with hideous wails and groans, With genuflexions that the most abjectness owns. The gods are many which the world adores; They may be stocks and stones, or creeds and books, Or saints or heroes; there are many scores Of idols, both of good and evil looks, To which the idol-serving worldling crooks The favor-seeking hinges of the knee; And then audaciously he freely brooks Disfavor of the many gods, that he May serve at Mammon's shrine and roll in luxury! The known and unknown gods are set aside When Mammon's glitt'ring chariot rolls along; The churches all adore the pomp and pride Of Mammon's blazing cortege; weak and strong Join in his train, unconscious of a wrong, And all the gods are chained unto his car; The "Unknown God" may get their Sunday song-- On other days he's worshiped from afar! But, next to Mammon, men adore the god of war. Or saints, or books, or images, or cross, No matter what the object worshiped be, 'Tis all the same--idolatrous and gross; It may be done in all sincerity, Or only done in base hypocrisy, As is the fancy of the worshiper; Both classes bend the superstitious knee, Hoping their god his favors will confer, Howe'er the supplicant in life and tho't may err! There is no efficacy in what's done By way of worship; all is empty show, External form; in not a single one Does it inspire a strong desire to go The straight and narrow path of duty. No, Not e'en the most benighted devotee-- The most sincere idolater we know-- Conforms his daily conduct so that he Shall realize the prayer of his idolatry.