< The First Article of the Methodist Faith Analyzed. (continued from page 14-20) >
This wise God all the fools designed;
This good God burns near all mankind;
This great God yields the de’il the kirk;
This perfect God does faulty work
All, all was made by him, ’tis said,
Without him there was nothing made;
Then to hell with him who says old Nick
Begat himself by some damned trick.
To reason thus may be too fast,
For God may make things right at last;
All ills may turn to joys supreme,
And but remembered as a dream.
So if he’s good all things are good;
All, therefore, since he made them should
Give him the credit, glory, praise
For all their dirty, crooked ways.
If God is wise then all are wise,
For he made all below the skies;
Supremely great, no power of course
Could hinder his infinite force.
So he does every arm employ,
Whether to save or to destroy;
And every mouth is his mouthpiece,
Though they from lying never cease.
The devil is his instrument—
His time is in his service spent—
Assassins do his sovereign will,
And robbers his designs fulfil.
The godhead we don’t comprehend,
To knowledge great we don’t pretend;
That three is one and one is three
Remains to us a mystery,
But on this mortal we insist
’Tis nice to[1] a Methodist;
For its creed proves since Adam’s fall
God is responsible for all.
Printed for the Free-thought Publishing Society, Colombo— July, 1882.
Editor's notes
↑ 1.01.1The handwritten “be” in the left margin is preceded by an angular mark; another mark appears between “to” and “a” in the last stanza. The writer has not been identified.
