As this poem shows, he is a sort of paradoxical personal pantheist, or Christian pantheist. The soul of Christ, more than that of any other revealer of the divine, is to him a sister soul. At daybreak on a battlefield he sees three wounded men asleep, and suddenly one of them seems to him to be Christ:
Young man I think I know you—I think this face is the face of the Christ himself,
Dead and divine and brother of all, and here again he lies.[1]
And as he had felt himself like unto God, so he feels like unto Christ. The same accusations had been brought against them both:
I hear it was charged against me that I sought to destroy institutions,
But really I am neither for nor against institutions.[2]
He seeks only to found the city of love; and his resolute purpose gives him the right to believe himself more truly Christian than those who bear that name merely as a sign of cold devotion. He speaks thus To Him that was Crucified:
My spirit to yours dear brother,
Do not mind because many sounding your name do not understand you,
I do not sound your name, but I understand you …
That we all labor together transmitting the same charge and succession …
Compassionaters, perceivers, rapport of men. …
