CHAPTER VII.

They journeyed on from Zuphim’s sea until They reached the sacred mount and heard the solemn Decalogue. The mount was robed in blackness,— Heavy and deep the shadows lay; the thunder Crashed and roared upon the air; the lightning Leaped from crag to crag; God’s fearful splendor Flowed around, and Sinai quaked and shuddered To its base, and there did God proclaim Unto their listening ears, the great, the grand, The central and the primal truth of all The universe—the unity of God. Only one God,— This truth received into the world’s great life, Not as an idle dream nor a speculative thing, But as a living, vitalizing thought, Should bind us closer to our God and link us With our fellow man, the brothers and co-heirs With Christ, the elder brother of our race. Before this truth let every blade of war Grow dull, and slavery, cowering at the light, Skulk from the homes of men; instead Of war bring peace and freedom, love and joy, And light for man, instead of bondage, whips And chains. Only one God! the strongest hands Should help the weak who bend before the blasts Of life, because if God is only one Then we are the children of his mighty hand, And when we best serve man, we also serve Our God. Let haughty rulers learn that men Of humblest birth and lowliest lot have Rights as sacred and divine as theirs, and they Who fence in leagues of earth by bonds and claims And title deeds, forgetting land and water, Air and light are God’s own gifts and heritage For man—who throw their selfish lives between God’s sunshine and the shivering poor— Have never learned the wondrous depth, nor scaled The glorious height of this great central truth, Around which clusters all the holiest faiths Of earth. The thunder died upon the air, The lightning ceased its livid play, the smoke And darkness died away in clouds, as soft And fair as summer wreaths that lie around The setting sun, and Sinai stood a bare And rugged thing among the sacred scenes Of earth.