The Veiled Master

Why should our Trusting Surrender
     Challenged by evil & loss?
Life issues only from darkness,
     Crowns are but won from a cross.

All through the infinite gloom-world
     God hath scattered His stars,
Night is their Etheope Mother,
     Wheeling their diamonded cars.

Out of the slime of the fen-lands
     Lily Nymphea was born—
Purity mingled with sweetness
     Beauty right-regally worn!

War, the red nurse of the vulture—
     Rapine & wrath in her vain—
Ruled by the Master, hath given
     Order & Freedom to man,

Potencies, chemic & vital,
     Brooding in darkness awhile,
Into a golden primitive
     Ripen the deadly & vile.

He who was chief among sinners
     Breathing out menace & death.
Called to be first of Apostles,
     Planted the cross of our faith.

God in the soul of the Human
     Lighted a spark of His own,
This an unquenchable atom,
     Growing shall lead to the Throne.

This the true fire of perdition
     Burning the vileness away
Over the ashes of Evil
     Shineth resplendent as day.

God, the Eternal Beginning,
     God the Eternal Result;
Doeth his will undefeated
     Shadowed in chambers occult.