Bubbly

CHARITY
Perhaps my faith is like my race, an 'accident' by birth?...
Determined partly by the place where first I came to earth.
So for the faiths of every land, though many they may be,
If some I cannot understand, Lord, give me charity.
The faith my fathers died to keep, the quest for God and life...
Took them o'er mountains high and steep;
through struggle, stress, and strife.
They served their God as they knew how, in fashions strange to me; But if I cannot take their vow, Lord, give Me charity.
And if my neighbors go to church to learn a different creed;
For God in other ways to search, and seek the
help they need;
Although their forms to me seem odd, their ways too far to see,
If through their prayers they come to God, Lord give me charity.
Had I been born 'neath China's skies, to ancestors I might pray;
Had India met my op'ning eyes then perhaps I'd bow to Brahma's sway.
The creed I hold derives its plan from where I 'chance' to be?...
So when I judge my fellow-man, Lord, give me charity.
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THE CHEMISTRY OF CHARACTER

John and Peter and Robert and Paul, God in His wisdom created them all.
John was a statesman and Peter a slave, Robert a preacher and Paul was a knave.
Evil or good as the case might be, white or colored or bond or free,
John and Peter and Robert and Paul - God in His wisdom created them all.

Out of earth's elements mingled with flame, out of life's compounds of glory and shame,
Fashioned and shaped by no will of their own, and helplessly into life's history thrown;
Born by the law that compels men to be, born to conditions they could not foresee,
John and Peter and Robert and Paul - God in His wisdom created them all.

John was the head Dan the heart of his state, was trusted and honored, was noble and great;
Peter was made 'neath life's burdens to groan, and never once dreamed that his souls was his own.
Robert great glory and honor received, for zealously preaching what no one believed,
While Paul of the pleasures of sin took his fill, and gave up his life to the service of ill.

It chanced that these men in passing away, from earth and its conflicts, all died the same day.
John was mourned through the length and the breadth of the land;
Peter fell 'neath the lash of a merciless hand.
Robert died with praise of the Lord on his tongue,
While Paul was convicted of murder and hung.
John and Peter and Robert and Paul - God in His wisdom created them all.

Men said of the statesman, how noble and brave, but of Peter, alas, he was only a slave;
Of Robert, 'tis well with his soul, it is well, while Paul they consigned to the torments of hell.
Born by one law through all nature the same. What made them differ, and who was to blame?
John and Peter and Robert and Paul - God in His wisdom created them all.

Out in the region of infinite light, where the soul of the black man is pure as the white,
Out where the spirit, through sorrow made wise, no longer resorts to deception and lies,
Out where the flesh can no longer control, the freedom and faith of the God-given soul -
Who shall determine what change shall befall...John and Peter and Robert and Paul?

John may in goodness and wisdom increase, Peter rejoice in infinite peace;
Robert may learn that the truths of the Lord, are more in the spirit and less in the word;
And Paul may be blessed with a holier birth, than the passions of men had allowed him on earth.
John and Peter and Robert and Paul - God in His wisdom created them all. [Elizabeth Dorney]
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