John Storm, the Zealot: A Poem

JOHN STORM, THE ZEALOT. LINES WRITTEN UPON READING "THE CHRISTIAN," BY HALL CAINE.

{For The Improvement Era.)

I hold it true that God knows best By what illusions we forsake Why we are vertebrates on earth: Our Father's law, to blindly plod For His creations all attest Through some ascetic path we take,- That race begets its kind by birth. In cloisters seeking after God

And if from God's creative laws Man was not made to be alone We change and teach another way— His heart rebels against the worth If of our whims we build a cause Of oaths that doom him to disown Alas! from law we go astray. The very laws that gave him birth.

For God made man to fit a sphere He nearest comes to God who gives Adapted to this planet's life, In offspring that he leaves behind He made man twain in sex appear His own true worth; that ever lives Each for the other— man and wife. To bless and sanctify mankind! And thus the covenant was made That gave to Abraham his throne. Shall Israel's great glory fade? God asks no man to live alone J. L. TOWNSEND. Payson, Utahj