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The Inner Life
THE HERALD OF THE NEW AGE | AUGUST 1937
THE ROAD OF NO RETURNING
By Earl B. Powell
TELL me not that things are hopeless
In your feeble-hearted way;
Or there is a shameful highway
Where men travel down to stay,
For, a “Road of No Returning”
Was not mapped out by the God
Who sent His own Son to help us
Back the way that we had trod,
Till at last we have surpassed the
Heights we had attained before;
For, “The Road of No Returning”
Is not called that any more.
Though the way is steep and thorny
And the cruel pointed stones
Make you leave your bloody footprints—
And your weary spirit groans
In pain as you stumble upward,
Yet, you make yourself obey,
And with grim determination
Go up higher on the way;
Knowing though you faint and falter,
That unless you fail and stop,
That “The Road of No Returning”
Is the pathway to the top.
When “The Lowly Galilean”
Came to save us from our shame,
Then “The Road of No Returning”
Had to take another name;
And though sometimes it seems useless
For a weary soul to fight,
When its dearest hopes are shattered,
Then the Master sets us right
(Though we may not heed His counsel
Till we feel the chastening rod);
And, the “Road of No Returning”
Is the road that leads to GOD.
WHEN this was written, I had lost everything, wife, home, and even a part of my good name, in trying to shield the name of one unworthy of the sacrifice. One night, when I was in despair, came a command to “write.” I picked up a pencil and wrote this as fast as I could set it down; for it was a PERSONAL message to me, from the One who looks after me.
Written in 1927—ten years ago.
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