Page:Poems Rowe.djvu/42

Dust that we are, what right have we to dare
To laud, and criticize Creator's work?
Is God a Man with nothing else to do
But lend an ear to all our selfish cries?
Cries of "Dear Lord, do this; dear Lord, do that,"
"If not for my sake, for Thy dear Son's sake".
Can God be bribed then? Can perfection err?
Oh! foolish people, what a God you make,
In your own likeness! A mere fleshly God
Swayed by the self-same passions, Love and Hate,
Whom you can praise or damn, as suits your case.
If Angels be, and wait about the Throne
We put Him on, how they must crack their sides
With laughter loud at the huge joke called Man!
At Man who dares to ask a God to fight
His other children for his benefit!
Oh! the sad humour of it!

For if, within our souls, we really think
The God we worship be omnipotent,
What need is there to prompt as if he were
A foolish Actor who'd forgot his part?
Could He go wrong? Ah! no! He were no God
Worthy our reverence, if this were so.
And if He be, then leave it all to Him,
And let God do His work in His own way,
And we in ours be Gods ourselves.
Be kind to one another, help the weak.
Do well the Duty nearest to our hand.