Ernest K. Challenger
And to-day with their coward lips
Men prate of love in their creeds,
And a thousand times to-day
Do they spurn her with their deeds.
For we talk of the law of truth
While our God is the law of might,
And the will of the strongest there
Is the thing we hold as right.
What have we gained with the years,
But the greater power to lie?
We, who speak of the truth,
Smooth-voiced and with side-long eye;
Better the axe of stone
And the feet on the weakest throat
Than the lying lips and the coward thrust
And the stealthy eyes that gloat.
Now for the one's desire
Shall the many be crucified
On the cross of a lawless power
With the nails of a soulless pride.
And the wrong goes deeper yet,
Aye, deep as the springs of life,
And has blossomed out at the 'hest of pride
In the deadly flower of strife.
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