IT HAS been decreed, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me,” yet century after century the evil thoughts of men were poured into the atmosphere surrounding the world, and out of them were born the gods of War and Greed.

Fed and nurtured by the selfish and malignant desires of mankind, these gods grew through the centuries into huge distorted creatures, Frankenstein monsters, despotically ruling all those who served and worshipped them. Surrounded by their stygian satellites, Hatred, Lust, Envy, Intolerance, Persecution, they sat high above the earth which had become their kingdom. Their raucous voices spoke in the bursting bombs, their breath was the poison gas, their malefic laughter was the overtone in the din of battle. From the fetid murky clouds which surrounded them pestilence hovered over the world. Fiendishly they watched the sufferings and tribulations of mankind, while playing a gigantic game of chess, with dictators, war lords, kings and diplomats as their pawns.

“The world is ours!” they shouted in diabolic glee, and man shuddered as he heard the echo of their Mephistophelian laughter in the shrill blast of the hurricane, the roar of the flood, the rumbling of the volcano and earthquake.

Yet as they reveled in the chaotic darkness which was their very life they beheld a steady luminous LIGHT that came from different parts of the darkened world, which they now so arrogantly believed they possessed. In vain they hurled their legions of darkness against the LIGHT, but still it glowed steadily through all the murky depths of evil.

“What is this LIGHT which defies all our efforts to quench it?”

Then out of the LIGHT there came a Voice, soft and vibrant, whose tone was as the music of the spheres, the very Voice that breathed o’er Eden; and as they heard it the gods trembled.

“It comes from the hearts of those who acknowledge no other gods but the Christ!”

Still these man-made gods would not relinquish the dominion that had been given them. In arrogant bravado they thundered, “Have they not seen us the conquerors of the earth, the destroying legions that have taken possession of the world!”

Again the VOICE spoke in a glorious strain of music, even as Orpheus walked through Hades, “Nay they see thee not, for knowing but one God they see nothing but GOOD and behold only the ever increasing glory of God!”

War and Greed cowered in abject fear as they heard the Voice that came from the luminous LIGHT, but fighting now for their very life they hurled still more demoniacal blasts of fury upon the world.

Steadily the LIGHT grew ever brighter and brighter, until it encompassed the earth, and darkness was no more. For darkness cannot endure when the LIGHT has come, for has it not been decreed from the very beginning; “There shall be nought but the Splendor and Glory of God in the heavens, and on earth Peace, Goodwill toward men!”

Whoever was begotten by pure love And came desired and welcome into life, Is of immaculate conception. He Whose heart is full of tenderness and truth, Who loves mankind more than he loves himself, And cannot find room in his heart for hate, May be another Christ. We all may be The Saviours of the world, if we believe In the Divinity which dwells in us, And worship it, and nail our grosser selves, Our tempers, greeds and our unworthy aims, Upon the Cross. Who giveth love to all, Pays kindness for unkindness, smiles for frowns, And lends new courage to each fainting heart, And strengthens hope and scatters joy abroad; He, too, is a Redeemer, Son of God.

—Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

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