Another King.
This poem originally appeared in the January 13, 1904 issue of the World ‘s Crisis. Transcribed by Tom Loghry.
Another King.
(Acts 17:7)
by Helen A. Goodwin
Over the nations to-day as of old,
Great Mammon is king
Virtue and conscience and justice are sold
And bought in the market place. Hideous Crimes
Assault the foundations of law in these times
Makers of wise laws annul in their lives
Rules good for other men. Husbands and wives
Crowd the divorce courts. With marriage made void,
Alas for the children whose homes are destroyed!
For Mammon is king.
To furnish a few men with power and ease
Millions are starving, yet even for these
The “root of all evil bears fruitage most sad,
Theft, arson, assault, death by anarchy mad.
Thus love of money and what money brings
Dominates people from paupers to kings;
Undermines faith in the Ruler on high
Till right is a fable and life is a lie.
Shall this go on till no motive remain
In the hearts of all people but mad lust of gain
Since Mammon is King?
Over your church buildings raised at such cost
Shall Mammon be king?
Money and effort that should save the lost
Spent in adorning the places where meet
Fashion and folly to hear music sweet,
Show one’s apparel, see what others wear,
To pray if at all the old pharisee’s prayer?
Professing to hallow the day of Christ’s birth
You feast with the drunken in riotous mirth.
Aping their follies and praising their pride
You shut out the poor man for whom Jesus died.
You do as the world does world-friendship to win,
And failing to lift them, you sink in their sin.
With sanctified (?) gambling and actors’ burlesque
You carpet the passage and cushion the desk;
God’s house you pollute with your barter and greed
In raising his pay who promulgates your creed.
With Satan controlling their source of supply,
No wonder your preachers still publish his lie!
And Mammon is king.
There shall come a new birth to this weary old Earth
And another be king!
Gone with the curse all the drouth and the dearth.
Then shall the buds of love ripen to fruit,
Songs shall be given tongues that were mute;
Rapture of sight to the blind eyes of time;
While deaf ears shall open to music sublime
When Jesus is king.
Hail, then, to our King who was dead and is risen!
We who are his shall escape from death’s prison.
Sin and its author and lovers of sin
Swept from the New Earth when his reign comes in.
Perfect in holiness, beauty and bliss,
That life shall pay for the losses of this
And Christ shall be King.
Darkness and danger and sorrow and loss,
No more can reach Him who died on the cross,
No one shall suffer with hunger or cold,
No shall ever be sick or grow old,
Satisfied longing, yea peace like a river
Shall flood with God’s glory the whole world forever,
When Jesus is King.
Lake View, N.H.