"I Shall Search"

"When all the wise and the prudent have said what they have to say.

And out of the law and the prophets have taken the thunders away,

And out of the Book of Beginnings have taken the wonders away,

I shall search for a new religion, with a pillar of fire by night,

And a Red Sea cleft through the middle, and an ark, and a white dove's flight.

 

"I shall find me a garden of Eden, with a serpent scorning the sod,

And a girl wide-eyed with wonder, and a man in the image of God;

And the flaming sword of an angel, and the flaming work of God!

 I shall look for a new religion that can overthrow proud Baal,

With a manna white as the hoarfrost, and a Jonah saved by a whale.

 

“When the grand old tale of creation is told in the form of germs,

And the evening and the morning look forth on the trail of worms,

And the burning words of the prophets are reduced to their lowest terms,

I shall need a new religion, all fire and mystery,

Too big for a brain like mine to hold, or the eyes of the wise to see.

 

"When the mists of doubt shall settle round the steps of the Nazarene;

When the little lost lamb shall cry in vain, and the pitiful Magdalene,

And out of the old, old story shall vanish John three sixteen,

I shall look for another Saviour; and to whom shall I go­? to whom?

Who can show me another Calvary, and another empty tomb?

 

"But what if from babes and sucklings is rendered the final word

To the wise of earth, and the subtle, who reason away my Lord?

What if the blood of the martyrs cries out to a risen Lord?

Ah, then I will search the Scriptures! On my knees I will search and see

How the glorious Light of the ages is the Light of life for me!”

-Ruby Weyburn Tobias.