====== The Inner Life ======
== THE HERALD OF THE NEW AGE | JANUARY 1937 ==
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==== THE LIGHT ====

THE GOD of the Great Endeavor gave me a torch to bear.
\\ I lifted it high above me in the dark and murky air—
\\ And straightway, with loud hosannas, the crowd acclaimed its light
\\ And followed me as I carried my torch thro’ starless night;
\\ Till mad with the people’s praises, and drunken with vanity,
\\ I forgot ’twas the torch that drew them, and fancied they followed me.

But slowly my arm grew weary upholding the shining load,
\\ And my tired feet went stumbling over the hilly road.
\\ And I fell, with the torch beneath me,
\\ In a moment the flame was out—
\\ Then, lo! from the throng a stripling sprung forth with a mighty shout,

Caught up the torch as it smouldered and lifted it high again,
\\ Till, fanned by the winds of heaven, it fired the souls of men!
\\ And as I lay in the darkness the feet of the trampling crowd
\\ Passed over and far beyond me, its paens proclaimed aloud—
\\ “’Tis the torch the people follow, whoever the bearer be!”
\\ —Elizabeth Furey.
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