To learn and to teach
To pray and to preach
To give and receive
To doubt and believe
To be hurt and forgive
To die and to live

Of the Divinity of Man

SRING CAME, and Nature began speaking in the mur-
mur of brooks and rivulets and in the smiles of the flow-
ers; and the soul of Man was made happy and content.

Then suddenly Nature waxed furious and laid waste the
beautiful city. And man forgot her laughter, her sweet-
ness, and her kindness.

In one hour a frightful, blind force had destroyed what
it had taken generations to build. Terrifying death
seized man and beast in his claws crushed them.

Ravaging fires consumed man and his goods; a deep
and terrifying night hid the beauty of life under a shroud
of ashes. The fearful elements raged and destroyed man,
his habitations, and all his handiwork.

Adidst this frightful thunder of Destruction from the
bowels of the Earth, admidst all this misery and ruin,
stood the poor Soul, gazing upon all this from a dis-
tance, and meditating sorrowfully upon the weak-
ness of Man and the omnipotence of God. She
reflected upon the enemy of Man hidden deep benath
the layers of the earth and among the atoms of the ether.
She heard the wailing of the mothers and of the hungry
children and she shared their suffering. She poured the
savagery of the elements and the smallness of Man.
And she recalled how only yesterday the children of
Man had slept safely in their homes - but today they
gazed upon it from a distance, their hope turned to
dispair, their joy to sorrow, their life of peace to war-
fare. She suffered with the brokenhearted, who were
caught in the iron claws of Sorrow, Pain, and Dispair.

And as the Soul stood there pondering, suffering,
doubting the justice of the Divine Law that binds all
of the world's forces, she whispered into the ear
of Silence:

"For fire, thunder,and tempests are to the Earth what
hatred, envy and evil are to the human heart. While the
afflicted nation was filling the firmament with growns
and lamentations, Memory brought to my mind all
the warnings and calamities and tragedies that have
been enacted on the stage of Time.

"I saw Man, throughout history, erecting towers, pal-
aces, cities, temples on the face of the earth; and I saw
the earth turn in her fury upon them and snatch them
back into her bosom.

"I saw strong men building impregnable castles and I
observed artists embellishing their walls with paint-
ings; then I saw the earth gape, open wide her mouth,
and swallow all that the skilful hand and the luminous
mind of genius had shaped.

"And I knew that the earth is like a beautiful bride who
needs no man-made jewels to heighten her loveliness
but is content with the green verdure of her fields, and
the golden sands of her seashores, and the precious
stones on her mountains.

"But man in his Divinity I saw standing like a giant in
the midst of Wrath and Destruction, mocking the anger
of the earth and the raging of the elements.

"Like a pillar of light Man stood amidst the ruins of
Babylon, Nineveh, Palmyra and Pompeii, and as he
stood he sang the song of immortality:


Let the Earth take
That which is hers,
For I, Man, have no ending."




Of the Martyrs to Man's Law

ARE YOU ONE who was born in the cradle of sorrow, and
reared in the lap of misfortune and in the house of oppres-
sion? Are you eating a dry crust, moistened with tears?
Are you drinking the turbid water in which are mingled
blood and tears?

Are you a soldier compelled by harsh law of man to for-
sake wife and children, and go forth into the fields of
battle for the sake of Greed, which your leaders mis-call
Duty?

Are you a poet content with your crumbs of life, happy in
the possession of parchment and ink, and sojourning in
your land as a stranger, unknown to your fellow men?

Are you a prisoner, pent up in a dark dungeon for some
petty offence and condemned by those who seek to reform
man by corrupting him?

Are you a young woman on whom God has bestowed
beauty, but who has fallen prey to the base lust of the
rich, who deceived you and brought your body but not
your heart, and abandoned you to misery and distress?

If you are one of these, you are a martyr to man's law.
You are wretched, and your wretchedness is the fruit of
the iniquity of the strong and the injustice of the tyrant,
the brutality of the rich, and the selfishness of the lewd
and covetous.

Comfort ye, my beloved weak ones, for there is a Great
Power behind and beyond this world of Matter, a
Power that is all Justice, Mercy, Pity and Love.

You are like a flower that grows in the shade; the gen-
tle breeze comes and bears your seed into sunlight,
where you will live again in beauty.

You are like the bare tree bowed with winter's snow;
Spring shall come and spread her garments of green
over you; and Truth shall rend the veil of tears that
hides your laughter. I take you unto me, my afflicted
brothers, I love you, and I condemn your oppressors.


Kahlil Gibran