Ella Wheeler Wilcox

The Creed to Be

Our thoughts are molding unmade spheres,
  And, like a blessing or a curse,
They thunder down the formless years,
  And ring throughout the universe.

We build our futures, by the shape
  Of our desires, and not by acts.
There is no pathway of escape;
  No priest-made creeds can alter facts.

Salvation is not begged or bought;
  Too long this selfish hope sufficed;
Too long man reeked with lawless thought,
  And leaned upon a tortured Christ.

Like shriveled leaves, these worn out creeds
  Are dropping from Religion’s tree;
The world begins to know its needs,
  And souls are crying to be free.

Free from the load of fear and grief,
  Man fashioned in an ignorant age;
Free from the ache of unbelief
  He fled to in rebellious rage.

No church can bind him to the things
  That fed the first crude souls, evolved;
For, mounting up on daring wings,
  He questions mysteries all unsolved.

Above the chant of priests, above
  The blatant voice of braying doubt,
He hears the still, small voice of Love,
  Which sends its simple message out.

And clearer, sweeter, day by day,
  Its mandate echoes from the skies,
”Go roll the stone of self away,
  And let the Christ within thee rise.”