Gems from the Spirit World by Spirit Shakespeare
GOD
The life behind all life—
The governing power—
The pulse of every orb and swinging sphere
The Guardian, Keeper, Judge—yet more than all,
The Father of mankind—whom He holds dear.
Freed from the flesh to find his heaven or hell—
His form the same, as every taste and longing,
But unconfined by mortal case or shell.
The ray we know as spirit—
Undying as the God who gives and takes—
Part of Himself, though housed in poverty—
Enriching those with love the world forsakes.
MIND
Reflection of Himself, is mind eternal—
And mirrored in each soul of all mankind—
Undying thought, or will in deed or purpose—
The part that lives when clay is left behind!
OMNIPOTENCE
The One pervading ALL.
DEATH
The pall that covers all, and all reveals.
The change that casts a worthless shell aside.
Of sleep the brother-twin but knows all waking.
Death is the bridegroom surely—Life the bride!
PRAYER
Supplication of Divinity—
God's intercession—
Upliftment of the spirit to His Throne—
The sharing of our every earthly burden—
The merging of our spirits with His own.
HEAVEN
A place beyond the earth or sight of woe—
A land of love and happiness supreme—
No longing—missing—haunting memories—
But all that mortals on the earth did dream.
LOVE
A meeting of two souls that mate as one—
The idol in the ideal perfected—
The past a blank which held these two apart—
The future? Time through which love shall be fed.
MOTHER
My own—a gentle, loving, happy heart,
Content if I but trudged on by her side—
An aching void, a hungering after her,
I've never met in all this countrywide.
God's salvation—
Unknown by many who were great on earth,
Who took no count of Life's eternal balance,
But hastened out in direst want and dearth.
WOMAN
The last—most perfect work of the Almighty—
The equal of Himself in many ways.
The one gift that perfected His creation—
The only solace of man's earthly days.
SIN
Defiance of God's laws—a heathen state—
A robber of the rights of blessedness.
The golden calf which makes sin possible;
And lust, the curse of mortal's wretchedness.
WISDOM
God—Almighty Providence—Creator—
The Father of mankind, and Judge at last—
No lesser mind can share His understanding—
No one can see His plan, though breath has passed.
A world he wrought with His Almighty Hand—
And ever since has blessed production, Life—
And still men doubt the world creation planned!
Elation—
Boon success—
The honeyed, fleeting second—
The twin of happiness.
A heart that never dies when dies the clay—
Eternal is the attribute of joy—
Its memory death has never ta'en away.
To wrack men's souls in darkness when they die
With stained hands smeared by their brother's gore—
And souls like theirs in millions streaming by!
Consideration last of your desires—
A beacon to the consciences of men—
A holy light illuming with its fires.
And care not that they are made of earth and clay,
Until we find them dust within our hands,
Stained so that naught can wash the stain away!
Unpinioned and unshackled liberty
Which answers to no law whoever made,
Knows no master—plans its own destiny.
A place of warmth and cheer and welcoming—
Abiding love surrounded by four walls,
And sheltered by an angel's snowy-wing.
The lasting satisfaction known by some
Who have achieved ambitions fondly cherished—
But he who has served God, where I have come!
To gain earth's plaudits, wreathed with immortelle—
To find no name or aught it made on earth,
Can heal a sick soul's wounds or make it well.
The power God gave to man to re-create—
The part within, which claims Him Maker—Master,
Amazing genius.
Godlike gifts innate.
Through suffering and trials clarified—
The patience and forgiveness of the Master.
The kindness that through all has never died.
Applies them to his living every hour.
A sainted one above I have not seen—
Their realms o'ertop mine own, as castle tower
O'erpinacles the sea—
As clouds of heaven o'er a castle are!
As sun and moon above the Mother Earth,
So we think on the saints, as some far distant star!
Where men are gauged by what they count a name—
But in the land where men go hence from here,
'Tis what they take, which holds no sting of shame.
The last sad rite, which meets man at the end,
Which sears his soul a lost one to his God,
And sends him hence to meet no cherished friend.
That which a man can take out to his God—
No earthly treasure, which a man can horde,
But that which profits burial in the sod.
The solving of God's Law Immutable—
Acceptance, while ye may, of Jesus' promise,
Or after death judgment inscrutable.
Which runs through generations of mankind—
A wordly element for most part left behind—
The humbled spirit has no pride, I find.
Who made all things that are—
The half of which man on the earth knows not,
But 'till he looks back on his life from far.
In all creations of the mind or skill—
The wondrous power of rare perfection's will;
The power behind the seed within the sod.
The viper in the breast of warring men—
The lurking foe, who harms at last himself,
Mayhap will know no peace ever again.
Undying as all life of His great plan—
His mind, His thought, His love, His child, Himself—
Inhabiting a temple God made—man.
A Nation all united in one cause—
Consideration for the humble man—
A ruling by divine, not human laws.
Who have descended in their line to rule—
The condescending of the royal house
To reign and lord it o'er peasant, prince and fool.
To bless with love each one, ay, even as a brother—
The Infinite who rules supplying needs,
And all for which His own slay one another.
Open the book and read if you see fit.
But one thing still would I add to the page—
God's holiest attribute is lost unto this age.
Unbounded faith becomes, God makes His own.
Faith in the Lord to save, forgive and wake from earthly dreams.
Embroidered o'er with gold enwrought with gems,
Is less (both wearer and his garb) in heaven's eyes,
Than some poor beggar who sin's current stems!
The pangs of spirit, soul—the part God saves
To be His own however soiled and worthless it has been—
The test of sin when men have passed their graves.
Divine adjustment—weighed by God's own hand.
The gold certificate men sell their souls to own—
The chains men forge, which weld them to the earth plane.
Where everyone must reap what he has sown.
Recalling in a joke its sight or name—
But when they find these ghosts are just as they,
They'll ponder long the way through which they came.
GHOSTS
The wraithlike form inhabiting man's clay,
Which men deride, except those who have seen—
The part God made which nevermore can die,
That being freed should be His own and clean.
The joy of King or Kingdom or Glory of God's Land.
Except while infants at their Mother's breasts,
Untrammelled by the lusts of mortal flesh,
Unlearned of the power of sin's requests.
Which spares affliction's rod—
And leaves to Him all merciful and kind,
The punishment belonging but to God.
JUSTICE
The balance held within God's hand,
Firm, Almighty, Just and True,
Which measures every thought, as well
As every deed you do.
VICE
The leper foul, which rots the soul for aye,
And brands it with its burning, searing fire,
Until the spirit would not own its self—
But wishes for destruction's end entire.
Creation's elemental force and sway—
By hope and faith 'tis fed and moulds with these,
The attributes no death can wipe away!
For which there is but justice wrought, where deeds must speak alone.
We spirits see, as men of earth, and wonder WHEN we'll know.
The thoughts made audible or plain—
The broken sounds of all intelligible,
Where spirits moan their past with all its pain.
WITCHES
Old crones who haunt with evil minds
Places of bad intent,
Whose hopes and wishes of all kinds
Are on disaster bent.
The soured and hateful of the world,
Where witches only go—
So mend your way—
THINK e're you SAY;
There ARE witches, you know.
BROTHERHOOD
The kinship of the nearest—of same sire.
The poorest of the earth can claim Him, his—
Then, are not all in loving bondage held—
When one God, one Father, made each soul, His?
PROPHECY
Foretelling through the spirit's help, events;
Revelation, more or less divine—
Calling on powers behind the veil of death,
As Jesus did when He took water and made wine.
VISIONS
The stone once rolled away, revealment then
To sight of scenes past mortal to conjure;
The truth few men can bear, as Jesus knew,
When He beheld alone God's divine power.
DREAMS
Imprints on the mind which passing strange
Lead men to wonder, oft to gasp and fear;
The web of fancy spun through sleeping hours;
The working of the witches, sometimes, here.
THE UNIVERSE
God's Word. His thought. His plan.
Created for those imaged forth as man;
Suspended by His will to be and move;
Out of His heart, a tribute of His love.
PRESENTIMENT
O'ershadowing doom reflected on the mind—
Predestination wing, encircling the gloom,
Where reason holds a torch, the path to find.
ALCHEMY
The soluble dissolved by formula,
Producing by itself a compound force
Uniting by degrees the liquid parts
Of the unknown and unsuspected source.
No god or goddess lore was ever true—
Of old, e're Shakespeare's time, invention ruled,
When greater men had nothing else to do.
PHILOSOPHY
Delving for truth for all self evident;
Making much of nothing, nothing gained;
Encircling a circle round and round,
Arriving at wits end unsoothed and pained.
POETRY
Effusions of the elevated mind,
Which towers above all other human kind—
Belated to the gods by a true claim—
Though much, so-called, misnomered by its name.
HUMANITY
River of souls fast hurrying whence they care not—
Freighted with care, uncompassed and unmanned—
Dwarfed by the unrealty called living—
Bridged by a span—uncertain, oft unspanned.
The love of God—His smile— His words, Well done—
Reward of all who follow in the footsteps of His Son.
FRIEND
A saviour—helper—honoured, treasured, few—
A sacrifical saint, selfless and true.
VICTORY
The status of the soul when the stone is rolled away—
The overcoming of all things for which a soul must pay.
WOES
Affliction's gnawing tooth. Dregs of the Christly cup.
The bloody sweat of earth's men until with Him they sup.
VIRTUE
The unshamed, unsullied follower of God's laws
Hath virtue's cheek unblushed for sinful cause.
RIGHTEOUSNESS
The lamp God sets within the heart and hand
To guide His children through sin's barren land.
FELLOWSHIP
The right to sup with Him and drink His cup—
The right to share His cross, divinely lifted up.
LOSS
A soul outcast who lived his life in vain;
Who, having all on earth, in spirit hath no gain.
All His.
DARKNESS
The realm above the earth where spirits go
To pay the price for sins cherished below—
A dome (for all I know) without a ray,
Where sinners pay and pay and pay and pay.
PRAISE
Adoration of the just and true;
The Light, the God within, whose praise is due
From every heart and lip, each flower and shrub as well
The love of Him surpassing words to tell.
ETERNITY
Forever. Unending Time.
That which was before all worlds,
Beyond the powers to grapple—
A secret His, sublime!
As as all who pass Him by.
The whoreson, thief, reviler, sot,
Or Shakespeare. Fool, was I.
PARDON
Divine forgiveness after repentant years
Through which a spirit in remorse prays, pleads, with bitter tears.
When last they drink the final cup,
He sends His Son to lift them up.
GUILT
The unconfessed and stealthy crimes
Which to each spirit clings and grimes
The soul, 'till all is washed away
Through One who died their guilt to pay.
CHILDREN
Offspring—offshoot from body, branch or mind—
Her cub and his, no matter by whom planned;
And all in All—which ye shall one day find.
ANGELS—CHERUBIMS—SERAPHS
Supposed winged bodies in heaven's space.
Sharing the saint's abodes; no doubt His grace.
The one who writes has seen no angel wing,
Nor heard a single note that cherubs sing.
HELL
Remorse of conscience round but after death.
(The change which changes, yet leaves sins the same)
And this is quite enough all spirits find,
Without a Lucifer, his brimstone or his flame.
A human's ears or eyes through suffering made keen
Above their kind, which spirits seek and seek to find.
Mouthpieces for the world unseen.
The gifted ones who suffer for His gift.
(Unless placed in their hands at birth)
The truest servants of the Lord on earth.
HEAVEN
Heaven is the place where Love exists.
CLOUDS
Obscurity.
Clouds roll on high above my head as yours;
In all their beauty, still I worship them
As part of God's own beauteous firmament;
Whose secret must endure until no end?
CHEER
Bubbles of life's wine both felt and seen—
The quality of mind abhorring all that's lean.
TEMPTATION
Allurement of sin and sinners enticing with a serpent's sting.
Whose fangs a soul o'erwhelms.
SOCIETY
Fools who are fooled by their own law's decree;
Outclassed, outshone, outdone, their knighthood chivalry
By those who knew the Law and kept it too,
Where is no caste except God welcome you.
THEOSOPHISTS
The clan of mortals not content to be
Made like Himself by Him throughout eternity;
But grasping by a chance a new fecundity
Spored through the spawn of their saner intellectuality.
PHYSICAL RESEARCH
Seekers of spirit's records. Sublime task.
A welcoming lifeline thrown the dead at last.
Who seeks shall find. There's naught can stem the tide
Of helpers bound to help these from the spirit side.
GAMESTERS
Souls playing with their lives eternal
While staking all upon the game of life.
Hounded by chance where is no game but losing,
Stoned by their conscience here they learn of strife.
MAGNETISM
A current flowing as doth flow a river—
Rising, ebbing, is this human tide—
Where it is found no mortal should be homeless—
Where is its health, there spirits would abide.
SPIRIT CONTROL
Humans as magnets are when is invasion.
No welcoming need be if these magnets true—
But such perfecting through the spirits teaching.
Must most assume before they will to do.
PERSONALITY
The pattern individual, unlost.
The type achieved and carried hence for aye.
The absolute unchanged, unchanging self—
No grave nor dying ever casts away.
LEGERDEMAIN
Stalwart humans posing as demi-gods
Performing supernatural feats through spirits aid
Aiming to fool the world of spirit help
Are crass ingrates—facts bared should be here laid.
IGNORANCE
The blind all satisfied with their estate
Whose ears are closed to harmonies sublime.
Hellbound their spirits hold no wealth at last,
But suffer for their choice for their own crime.
CALVARY
The mount from which souls rise.
SORROW
All earth's shall drink of sorrow's cup—
'Twas this for which He died—
Though He was God's beloved Son,
Sorrow Him crucified.
COWARDS
All men who call not on His name, confessing before men
That Jesus died to save the world, through Christ, for God.
Amen