CONTRADICTION
My mind is part of God's and cannot die:
My body, granted, soon must disappear
As it was fitted only for life here;
My mind immortal is, eternity
But brings it sooner to maturity;
No longer limited by flesh and fear
And full-expanding in the heavenly sphere
It revels in the blest futurity,
All knowledge is presented to its view,
For God is good and shares His utmost store,
Through all the ages mind shall have its due
And wisdom be revealed from more to more;
Until at last it Truth, indeed, shall know
And mind shall share in God's omniscient glow.
NEVER LONELY WHEN ALONE
No, never lonely when alone
With God, by sea or land,
Are those blest children who have known
The Father’s love , and who have grown
To trust His guiding hand.
As Jesus sought the mountain-side
And desert place apart,
So man may in God’s bosom hide
And be forever fortified
If he is pure in heart.
The atoms, stars, and nebulae,
And all the laws of light
Are God’s and they will surely be
The aids of those who steadfastly
Attempt to do the right.
Ah! if men only God receive
As plants absorb the air
Man may his bitter past retrieve
And prove by deeds that they believe,
As Jesus did, in prayer.
Paradise, Smyrna
January 1931
IN THIS WORLD OF SADNESS
In this world of sadness,
Want, and fear, and woe,
Radiate Thy gladness,
Lord! Thy cheer bestow:
May men learn to follow
In Thy perfect Way,
And no longer wallow
In greed's troughs, we pray.
Thou hast showered riches,
Thou hast dowered mind,
Yet man's greed bewitches,
Selfishness doth blind:
Santify, we pray Thee, -
Man's starved, latent soul
That he may portray Thee,-
Pure , unselfish, whole!
May Thy Church, Lord Jesus!
Be the first to scorn
Gifts which may he specious
Which Thy Way suborn
May we, Thy examples,
So with faces shine
That we shall be samples
Of Thy power devine.
Paradise, Smyrna
August 5, 1933
ODE TO THE UNIVERSE
O Universe! God's panoply
Of nebula and sun!
Beneath thy sparkling canopy
We watch the ages run:
The beams of light in varied hue
A million years in flight,
Come scintillating into view
And prove God’s skill and might.
O Atom! God’ s remotely small
But perfect, ordered world!
Within thy clear-imagined ball
We see electrons whirled:
Thy secrets and thy latent power
We conquer , one by one ,
Until we gain our rightful dower,-
God’s bounty never done.
O Ether! God's eternal breath,
Embracing force and form,
And mind and soul, and life and death
And haven after storm!
Though nought we know as yet of thee
Through God we still shall find
The key to human mystery
And be no longer blind.
By God’s blest aid we vanquish Space,
Through God we master Time:
Through Him we gain o'er Force the race,
Through God the Ether prime:
With Him we yet shall victors be
Ofer Greed and Self and Sin,
Until we have the mastery
And highest life begin.
Paradise, Smyrna
October, 1920
CHRISTMAS 1924
The ancient world with all its ant had failed
And death was welcomed as despair's release
But Jesus came, and soon His power prevailed
To lead mankind toward hope, and love, and peace:
A little Babe, He came to Bethlehem
And clearly showed to men the Father's face;
The cross He hallowed at Jerusalem
And bought salvation for the human race.
His spirit, like the radiating waves,
Has coursed the centuries to every clime
And brought the wondrous message, "Jesus saves",
That gift of God, unspeakably sublime!
If God neglected not His Son to give
Shall we not give ourselves and nobly live?
Paradise, Smyrna
December 1924
LUST
When shall the reign of ruthlessness be o'er!
Ah! Nature, thou shouldst ne'er have climbed to man;
For once the victory o'er thee was sure,
Thy masterpiece upset the ordered plan!
He filled his harems with the countless fair,
He roamed o'er sea and land for female pray,
He surfeited,- then listened to Lust's dare
Out-devilled Hell, till mind or life gave way.
Even the purest who Lust's lures sublimed,
Like Anthony, had visions carnal, vile;
Even the fairest were by Lust begrimed
In art, in letters, in the beckoning smile.
As mercury displaces every flow
Alone the holiest things I strive to know.
Paradise, Smyrna
January 1, 1933
FRUSTRATION
My active mind, alive with pregnant thought
And filled with memories of countless things,
My fancy bright, which moulds, and paints, and sings
Will soon be paralyzed and end in nought;
All that deep study and reflection brought,
All that experience to mortals brings,
Will to themselves take foolish, fruitless wings
And must in blank oblivion be sought.
What matters it that I my life have spent
In self-denial that my mind might grow?
What means endeavor when the veil is rent
And only carrion is left to show?
Why was I given aim and zeal to learn
When all will end with ashes in an urn?
THE BEAUTY OF JESUS
I gazed on Beauty naked
From evening until dawn,
Until the first bright streamers
Enfolded Him in lawn;
And inwardly I worshipped,
Rapt, silent, glorified,
Because I saw my Saviour,
Jesus, the Crucified!
No brush can paint His beauty,
No music sound His charm,
No chisel carve His matchless form,
And words can only harm:
Jesus! my dear Redeemer!I
Appear to every one
As Thou didst then appear to me
And all the world is won
His face than sun is brighter,
His eyes with love more deep
Than radius of creation,
His lips with rapture steep;
But Oh! His heart of mercy
Is like the Milky Way,-
Transcendent, pure, and circled,-
Love’s ultimate display.
Paradise, Smyrna
January 14, 1933
WEARIED, LORD! AND DISILLUSIONED
Wearied, Lord! and disillusioned
By ingratitude,
I the more with
Thee am fusioned
By the Rood.
Two millenniums have hasted
Since Thy sacrifice,
But mankind has not yet tasted
Paradise.
Thy pure patience has not weakened,
Holy Saviour, Christ
Thus Thy will to me is beaconed
By the Highest.
Once again I take my burden,
Burden welcome, light!
Since I am by Thee full girden
For the fight.
Paradise, Smyrna
January 22, 1933
TAKE TIME TO BE HAPPY
Take time to be happy
Since joy is your right;
Fail not to live raptly
For life should be delight;
Creation awaits you
To have and enjoy,
God’s goodness creates new
Service to employ.
Take thought to be thankful
Since blessings abound
And God pours a bankful
Of riches around;
For gratitude gladdens
Both given and friend
And thanklessness saddens
Til love has an end.
Take strength to be daring
When dangers arise
Since God will be sharing
Each brave enterprise;
In life nought can harm you
In death nought can fright,
For Jesus will arm you
To conquer aright.
Glad, brave and receptive
God wants you to be;
Christ came that you might live
More abundantly:
Take time from your sorrow,
From worry and fear,
And happiness borrow
From God's gracious cheer.
Paradise, Turkey
February, 1928
ASPIRATION
Thy crystal stream, O Christ!
Give me to drink,
That I may never fall
Nor fainting sink:
Earth's flood can never slake
My thirst divine;
Only Thy waters fill
This soul of mine.
Make me a fountain, Lord!
Welling from Thee,
Full-filled with helpfulness
And purity:
From me may rivers flow,
Living and still
Strengthening all who quaff
To work Thy will.
Paradise, Smyrna
March 1927
Genealogy of Caleb W. Lawrence & Family