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Page 1 of 21904 · PDF PAGE 49
THE SWORD OF SONG 42 Now who dares Call me no Christian ? And, who cares ? Read ; you will find the Master of Balliol, Discarding Berkeley, Locke, and Paley’ll Resume such thoughts and label clear “My Christianity lies here !” With such religion who finds fault ? Star, it seems foolish to exalt Religion to such heights as these, Refine the mystic agonies To nothing, lest the mystic jeer “So logic bends its line severe Back to my involuted curve !” These are my thoughts. I shall not swerve. Take them, and see what dooms deserve Their rugged gran…
1904 · PDF PAGE 35
…e and the Brahmins preach That Ego-Atman sole must be ; With Schelling and the Buddha own No-Ego-Skandhas are alone ; With Hegel and the—Christian ? teach That which compels, includes, absorbs Both mighty unrevolving orbs In one informing masterless Master-idea of consciousness— All differences as these indeed Are chess play, conjuring. “Proceed !” Nay ! I’ll go back. The exposition Above, has points. But simple fission Has reproduced a different bliss, At last a heterogenesis ! The metaphysics of these verses Is perfectly absurd. My curse is N…
1904 · PDF PAGE 27
THE SWORD OF SONG 20 At the whole fabric—nor the seas Filled with those innocent agonies Of Pagan Martyrs that once bled, Of Christian Martyrs damned and dead In inter-Christian bickerings Where hate exults and torture springs, A lion an anguished flesh and blood, A vulture on ill-omen wings, A cannibal74 on human food. Nor do I cry the scoffer’s cry That Christians live and look the lie Their faith has taught them : none of these Inspire my life, disturb my peace. I go beneath the outward faith Find it a devil or a wraith, Just as my mood or t…
1904 · PDF PAGE 14
ASCENSION DAY 7 Panel* in libel I bewail me! (Funny how English seems to fail me!) So, as a surgeon to a man, sir, Let me excise your Christian cancer Impersonally, without vanity, Just in pure love of poor humanity ! Here’s just the chance you’d have ! Behold The warm sun tint with early gold Yon spire : to-day’s event provide My text of wrath—Ascension-tide ! Oh ! ’tis a worthy day to wrest Hate’s diadem from Jesus’ Crest ! Ascends he ? ’Tis the very test By which we men may fairly judge, From the rough roads we mortals trudge Or God’s paths …
1904 · PDF PAGE 6
…t of will, like a child breaking an ingenious toy, I take Mansel as my type.* Now, however, let us consider the esoteric idea-mongers of Christianity , Swedenborg, Anna Kingsford, Deussen and the like, of whom I have taken Caird as my example. I wish to unmask these people: I perfectly agree with nearly every thing they s ay, but their claim to be Christians is utterly con- fusing, and lends a lustre to Christianity which is quite foreign. Deussen, for ex- ample, coolly dis cards nearly all the Old Testament, and, picking a few New Tes ta- ment…
1904 · PDF PAGE 105
…ausality . He cannot prevent past causes taking effect, but he can prevent pres ent caus es from having any future results. The exoteric Christian and Hindu rather rely on another person to do this for them, and are further blinded by the thirst for life and individual existence, the most formidable obstacle of all, in fact a negation of the very object of all religion. Schopenhauer shows that life is assured to the will-to-live, and unless Christ (or Krishna, as the cas e may be) des troys these folk by superior power—a task from which almight…
1904 · PDF PAGE 41
…ads, Murmer my mantra,49 till recedes The world of sense and thought—I sink 475 480 485 490 495 500 505 510 Fact replacing folklore, the Christian snig- gers. Let him beware. For I speak subtly. Results of prac- tice. The poet abandons all to find Truth.
1904 · PDF PAGE 43
…sh-story I ever heard—give God the glory !) The things seems cruel now, of course. Still, it’s a grand case of God’s force ! But, modern Christians, do you dare With common prudence to compare The efficacity of prayer ? Who will affirm of Christian sages That prayer can alter averages ? The individual case allows Some chance to operate, and thus Destroys its value quite for us. So that is why I knit my brows And think—and find no thing to say Or do, so foolish as to pray. “So much for this absurd affair52 About” validity of prayer. But back ! L…
1904 · PDF PAGE 24
…lies) 580 585 590 595 600 605 610 615 heaven suffers Hell’s pangs, owing to re- proaches of bard. Ethical and eloquent de- nunciation of Christian Cos- mogony.
1904 · PDF PAGE 22
…g, Incapable in time or space Or to inflict or suffer. We I think are gradually weeding The soil of dualism. Pheugh ! Drop to the common Christian’s view ! This is my point ; the world lies bleeding :— (Result of sin ?)—I do not care ; I will admit you anywhere ! I take your premises themselves And, like the droll deceitful elves They are, they yet outwit your plan. I will prove Christ a wicked man. Free will. Herbert Spencer. If there is free will how can there be pain or damnation ? not-Self being an illusion. Self or not-Self real? Chute d’I…
1904 · PDF PAGE 13
…f poet. Indignation of poet. Poet defies his uncle. Whip and spur. Sporting offer. The Times Com- petition outdone. Sub-species of genus Christian included in poet’s strictures. 145 150 155 160 165 170 175 180
1904 · PDF PAGE 47
THE SWORD OF SONG 40 Such reservations—and I class Myself a Christian : let us pass Back to the text whose thread we lost, And see what means this “Pentecost.” This, then, is what I seem occurred According to our Saviour’s word) That all the Saints at Pentecost Received the gift—the Holy Ghost ; Such gift implying, as I guess This very super-consciousness.59 Miracles follow as a dower ; But ah ! they used that fatal power And lost the Spirit in the act. This may be fancy or a fact ; At least it squares with super-sense Or “spiritual experience.…
1904 · PDF PAGE 20
…ur joys, our pains, Our little lives—and God remains. Were this the truth—why ! worship then Were not so imbecile for men! But that’s no Christian faith ! For where Enters the dogma of despair ? Despite his logic’s silver flow I must count Caird62 a mystic ! No ! You Christians shall not mask me so The plain words of your sacred books Behind friend Swedenborg his spooks ! Says Huxley63 in his works (q. v.) “The microcosmic lives change daily In state or body”—yet you gaily Arm a false Hegel cap-à-pie— Your self, his weapons—make him wear False …
1904 · PDF PAGE 26
…his inspires the indignant blow 660 666 670 675 680 685 690 695 700 Poem does not treat of Palæ- ontology : nor of poet’s youth : nor of Christian infamies. Poet forced to mystic position.
1904 · PDF PAGE 99
…lutely straight.” The definition of God as infinite therefore denies man implicitly; while if he be finite, there is an end of the usual Christian reasons for worship, though I daresay I could myself discover some reasonably good ones. [I hardly expect to be asked, somehow.] The resulting equilibrium of God and man, destructive of worship, is of course absurd. We must reject it, unless we want to fall into Positivism, Materialism, or something of the sort. But if, then, we call God i nfinite, how are we to regard man, and Satan? (the latter, at…
1904 · PDF PAGE 23
…ire, a thirst for these ; A harp-resounding heaven for those ! And though you claim Salvation sure For all the heathen68—there again New Christians give the lie to plain Scripture, those words which must endure ! (The Vedas say the same !) and though His mercy widens ever so, I never met a man (this shocks, What I now press, so heterdox, Anglican, Roman, Methodist, Peculiar Person—all the list !— I never met a man who called Himself a Christian, but appalled Shrank when I dared suggest the hope God’s mercy could expand its scope, Extend, or ben…
1904 · PDF PAGE 21
…ed? I hereby guarantee to pull A faith as quaint and beautiful As much attractive to an ass, And setting reason at defiance, As Zionism, Christian Science, Or Ladies’ Leage,65 “Keep off the Grass !” From “Alice through the Looking-Glass.” Hence I account no promise worse, Fail to conceive a fiercer curse Than John’s third chapter (sixteenth verse). But now (you say) broad-minded folk Think that those words the Master spoke Should save all men at last. But mind ! The text says nothing of the kind ! Read the next verses !† Then—one third Of all h…
1904 · PDF PAGE 46
…s no such life and death odds, Since suffering souls to save or damn Never existed). So I fall Confessing : Well, perhance I am Myself a Christian after all ! So far at least. I must concede Christ did attain in every deed ; Yet, being an illiterate man, Not his to balance or to scan, To call God stupid or unjust ! He took the universe on trust : He reconciled the world below With that above ; rolled eloquence Steel-tired58 o’er reason’s “why?” and “whence?” Discarded all proportion just And thundered in our ears “I know,” And bellowed in our b…
1904 · PDF PAGE 17
… the Most High !—And that alone That question of the Great White Throne, Is the sole point that we debate.” I answer, Here in India wait Christian pre- misses ac- cepted. Severe mental strain involved in reading poem. The Ascension at last ! This is a common feat. Prana- yama. Difference be- tween David Douglas [sic] Home, Sri Swami Sabapati Vamadeva Bhaskara- nanda Sara- swati and the Christ. Latter com- pared to Madame Hum- bert. 300 305 310 315 320 325 330 335
1904 · PDF PAGE 66
…y untrue ; but let us follow our plan, and grant them all they ask. 709. A cannibal.74—This w ord is inept, as it predicates humanity of Christian-hate- Christian. J’accuse the English language : anthropo- phagous must always remain a comic word. 731. The Flaming Star.75—Or Pentagram, mystically referred to Jeheshua. 732. Zohar.76—“Splendour,” the three Central Books of the Dogmatic Qabalah. 733. Pigeon.77—Says an old writer, whom I translate roughly : “Thou to thy Lamb and Dove devoutly bow, But leave me, prithee, yet my Hawk and Cow : And I a…