YCBA Collections Search

Inscribed in orange ink, upper right: "77"

Lettered inside image: "To the Christians... | I give you the end of a golden string, | Only wind it into a ball: | It will lead you in at Heaven's gate, | Built in Jerusalem's wall. | Devils are False Religions. | 'Saul, Saul, Why persecutest thou me?' | We are told to abstain from fleshly desires that we may lose no time from | the Work of the Lord. Every moment lost, is a moment that cannot be re- | deemed: every pleasure that intermingles with the duty of our station is a folly | unredeemable, & is planted like the seed of a wild flower among our wheat. All | the tortures of repentance are tortures of self-reproach on account of our leav- | ing the Divine Harvest to the Enemy, the struggles of intanglement with in- | coherent roots. ' I know of no other Christianity and of no other Gospel than | tthe liberty both of body & mind to exercise the Divine Arts of Imagination: | Imagination, the real & eternal World of which this Vegetable Universe is but | a faint shadow, & in which we shall live in our Eternal or Imaginative Bodies, | when these Vegetable Mortal Bodies are no more> The Apostles knew of no | other Gospel. What were all their spiritual gifts? What is the Divine Spirit? | is the Holy Ghost any other than an Intellectual Fountain? What is the | Harvest of the Gospel & its Labours? What is that Talent which it is a curse | to hide? What are the Treasures of Heaven which we are to lay up for our- | selves, are they any other than Mental Studies & Performances? What are all | the Gifts of the Gospel, are they not all Mental Gifts? Is God a Spirit who | must be worshipped in Spirit & in Truth, and are not the Gifts of the Spirit | Every-thing to Man? O ye Religious, discountenance every one among you | who shall pretend to despise Art & Science! I call upon you in the Name of | Jesus! What is the Life of Man but Art & Science? is it Meat & Drink? | I is not the Body more than Raiment? What is Mortality but the things re- | lating to the Body, which Dies? What is Immortality but the things relating | to the Spirit, which Lives Eternally? What is the Joy of Heaven but Im- | provement in the things of the Spirit? What are the Pains of Hell but Ignor- | ance, Bodily Lust, Idleness & devastation of the things of the Spirit? Answer | this to yourselves, & expel from among you those who pretend to despise the | labours of Art & Science, which alone are the labours of the Gospel : Is not | this plain & manifest to the thought? Can you think at all, & not pronounce | heartily: That to Labour in Knowledge, is to Build up Jerusalem; and to | Despise Knowledge, is to Despise Jerusalem & her Builders. And remember: | He who despises & mocks a Mental Gift in another, calling it pride & selfish- | ness & sin, mocks Jesus the giver of every Mental Gift, which always appear | to the ignorance-loving Hypocrite, as Sins: but that which is a Sin in the sight | of cruel Man, is not so in the sight of our kind God. Let every Christian, as | much as in him lies, engage himself openly & publicly before all the World in | some Mental pursuit for the Building up of Jerusalem | I stood among my valleys of the south, | And saw a flame of fire, even as a Wheel | Of fire surrounding all the heavens: it went | From west to east against the current of | Creation, and devour'd all things in its loud | Fury & thundering course round heaven & earth. | By it the Sun was roll'd into an orb: | By it the Moon faded into a globe, | Travelling thro the night; for from its dire | And restless fury Man himself shrunk up | Into a little root a fathom long. | And I asked a Watcher & a Holy-One | Its Name? he answered: It is the Wheel of Religion. | I wept & said: Is this the law of Jesus, | This terrible devouring sword turning every way? | He answer'd : Jesus died because he strove | Against the current of this Wheel: its Name | Is Caiaphas, the dark Preacher of Death, | Of sin, of sorrow, & of punishment: | Opposing Nature! It is Natural Religion. | But Jesus is the bright Preacher of Life, | Creating Nature from this fiery Law, | By self-denial & forgiveness of Sin. | 65 Go therefore, cast out devils in Christ's name, | Heal thou the sick of spiritual disease, | Pity the evil, for thou art not sent | To smite with terror & with punishments | Those that are sick, like to the Pharisees, | Crucifying, & encompassing sea & land | For proselytes to tyranny & wrath. | But to the Publicans & Harlots go! | Teach them True Happiness, but let no curse | Go forth out of thy mouth to blight their peace. | For Hell is open'd to Heaven: thine eyes beheld | The dungeons burst & the Prisoners set free. | England! awake! awake! awake! | Jerusalem thy Sister calls! | Why wilt thou sleep the sleep of death, | And close her from thy ancient walls? | Thy hills & valleys felt her feet, | Gently upon their bosoms move: | Thy gates beheld sweet Zion's ways: | Then was a time of joy and love. | And now the time returns again: | Our souls exult, & London's towers | Recieve the Lamb of God to dwell | In England's green & pleasant bowers."