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20
Latter-Day Psalms
THE REBEL
Thus spake the oppressed:
What have I to do with God? What has God done for me?
He thrust me into the world hungry, and I could get no food.
He made others to surfeit, that my mouth might water.
He made me to desire pleasure and shun pain, and overwhelmed me with heavy toil and grief.
He made me to love, and to hunger for love; but what home for love have I?
He made me to guess that there is beauty, and set his favoured ones to proclaim beauty lest I should forget.
But the door of his heaven he fixed ajar, that I might hear and not enter.
And ye speak to me of worship and the joy of sacrifice! Wherefore should I sacrifice to you and to your tyrant God?
Mighty is your God, for he made the stars and enslaved the peoples. Loving he is not, for he made me.
What have I to do with God? What has God done for me?
He thrust me into the world hungry, and I could get no food.
He made others to surfeit, that my mouth might water.
He made me to desire pleasure and shun pain, and overwhelmed me with heavy toil and grief.
He made me to love, and to hunger for love; but what home for love have I?
He made me to guess that there is beauty, and set his favoured ones to proclaim beauty lest I should forget.
But the door of his heaven he fixed ajar, that I might hear and not enter.
And ye speak to me of worship and the joy of sacrifice! Wherefore should I sacrifice to you and to your tyrant God?
Mighty is your God, for he made the stars and enslaved the peoples. Loving he is not, for he made me.
