The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-11-13
The Religious Element in Kipling's
Work.

There has been q marked tendency
among reviewers and critics of Rudyard
Kipling's great jubilee poem-"Rscess-
ional"-to treat it as phenomenon, the
expression of "a spirit altogether un
wonted in his writings. Even DR.. W
Robertson Nicoll, writing from London
to the September Bookman, has sim
liar tone. Speaking of the verses. he
writes: Their high religious tone is in
strange contrast with much of Mr.. Kip
ling's patriotic poetry, and many have
felt as if they had witnessed a conversion
more complete and more sudden than
has ever been accomplished in the an
nails of the Salvation Army This sort
of talk shows a surprising misconcep
from being held in the background, the
religious motive has been not merely
prominent but dominant in his work.
OF course Kipling has not preached
making hymns and public prayers has
not been his business, yet expressions OF
sincere and genuine religion mark even
his earliest work. Not even the RE
cessional' itself can show any advance
in simple, heartfelt piety and reverence
over this hymn, in dedication of one of
his earliest books:
10, have wrought in common clay
Rude figures of a rough-hewn race
For pearls strew not the market-place
In this my town of Punishment
Where with the shifting dust | play
And eat the bread of Discomfort.
Yet is there life in that l make.
Thou who knowest turn and see
AS Thou hast power over me,
So have power over these,
Because 1 wrought them for Thy sake
And breathed in them mine agonies.
| Small mirth was in the making. Now
| lift the cloth that cloaks the clay,
And, wearied, at Thy feet lay
| My wares ere 1 go forth to sell.
| The long bazaar will praise-but thou
Heart of my heart, have 1 done well?
Nor is this an isolated utterance com
ing as it does at the beginning of Kip
| ling's career. it marks the pervading
spirit of his work. AS little as any other
gentleman can he be garrulous about
his religion. Yet it is constantly and
discoverably present. | don't know
where to look for a more sympathetic
appreciation of the devotion and self
sacrifice that is practiced in the name of
1.-The record of Badaliah Herodsfoot," in
the volume, "Many Inventions" And
in the same volume under the title
THE Children of Zodiac" there is de-
Tense and justification for preaching
such as st. Paul himself mightsay amen
to. | have often felt that if ever on the
brink of the ministry man we're to halt
for doubt of results or want of mes
sage. the gospel contained in that ale.
CORY should fix his resolve. Instead of
being wanting in religious feeling. l sus.
pect Kipling has often with difficulty re-
strained himself from too frequent ex-
preston of it. for the utterance when it
comes is torrential. There was world of
meaning straining behind the words of
the verses to Walcott Balestier printed
at the front of the Ballads: "Who had
done his work. and held his peace, and
had no fear to de-" and the rest. And
none of us can forget the splendid burst
at the close of the last poem in his latest
book of verses:
And only the Master shall praise us and
only the master shall blame,
And no one shall work for money and no
one shall work for fame,
But each for the joy of the working, and
each in his separate star,
Shall draw the thing as he sees 1t, forthe
| God of Things as They Are.
In sense best of all, however, is the
prayer in the Hymn Before Action" be-
cause it comes from the hearts of men
at their extremity. when all the veneer
of ordinary custom and all the pretense
OF conventional and sheltered life is
brushed away.
| Cloak Thou our understanding
Make firm the shuddering breath,
In silence and answering,
To taste Thy lesser death.
| To him the ultimate of utterance is
prayer. So it has been throughout.
Though he has maintained the reserve
and reticence of any manly man about
his faith. no writer of our time is more
vitality religious in spirit. The poet who
has ended his latest book as he began
his first, with prayer, is certainly not
subject for the solicitude of the Saliva
ton Army.-W. B. Parker, in Boston
Transcript