The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1903-10-20
For the MESSENGER
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. CHAOS AND CREATION. .
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(By T. Shelley suttonl .

Someplace, somewhere somehow in some part
There was some Thing from which all things
did start
That Thing, perchance, gigantic, huge and vast
CThe compact body OF all worlds enmassed,)
So monstrous was that mind must utilize
Eternity, to half conceive its size
Yet co-existent with that boundless Thing
Was Something more, all else enveloping
The Thing was substance-one stupendous clod; ;
The Something that enveloped, men call "God" ="
Each was mere Condition. Being one,
There must have been an opposite, or none;
Tho we conceive of fire as something hot"
'Twould be as ice,were something different not /;
Conceiving something high" we must admit
Our sense Of depth-anttthesis OF it;
Thus one condition, first tho it may be,
Doth in itself an opposite decree;
All else. therefore upon the t1C0 depend
Those two conditions have themselves no end
The first Condition was primeval sod,
The counter condition its antithesis, or God"
One on the other did by Law rely;
Law, in itself doth its own cause supply;
There would be Law, tho all the Universe
Were one wild mass--a natural crime-or worse /;
But Law, to be enforced, requires mind
Whereby it's principles become defined
Law is eternal, like the Master Soul
Which did It's natural principles enscroll.
Effect and Cause upon some law depend
Mind is the Cause, Effect the legal end
Thus, by eternal Law, primeval Mind
Was given pow'r to do as it designed
But that first Law, on God, or Mind, did place
A Limitation thro' all time and space;
And God, himself, cannot that Law cefy-
He must obey it, as must you and l.
He cannot make nonentity of earth,
Nor yet destroy the substance of our birth.
The 'marvels" Christ performed to give us awe
Were acquisitions from the Natural Law;
The common mind-frail part of its vast Sire!-
Hath not the scope Christ's knowledge TO ac-
quire,
Tho cultivation, or expansion may
Make all like Christ on some fardistant day.
God-Mnd-that Elemental Force
Beheld this awful Thing, and time, of course,
Suggested in that Universal Mind
The need of general Purpose-Life, defined.
The first conception of Utility
Created in that Mind the need of Me.
The knowledge having of all Natural Law,
Primeval Mad pow'r and purpose saw.
In idlen 5ss itself there is a need,
Hence idle minds oft plan some idle deed
Thereby becoming active. God conceived
Utility, which idleness relieved,
Forthwith enforced each Natural Law, and
made
The Thing to move. Thus Reason did invade
The realms of Chaos. Elemental Mind
Became the soul of substance, and designed
A plan of self. utility, requiring life,
Which in its turn necesSitated strife.
Thus was that vast Condition-Mind or God
Made manifest in its antithess-the sod;
1t did acute eristeRce thus acquire.
AS fuel doth increase and strengthen fire;
The latter on the fuel so relies,
Both things exist, but one MUST utilize.
Without the fuel there would be no fame,
But elemental fire exists the same;
There is eternal tame in regions dark,
IPitk it a Law of Cause which makes the spark.
The fact that there is substance to be burned
Calls forth the properties OF fame discerned;
One sans the other could itself be not
The one condition, cold creates the "hot."
Fire, visible in fuel, men believe
But that manifested few conceive.
The CO. o-utility of wood and fame
Creates condit Ons of a different name;
Embers charcoal. ashes, clnders coke,
Spark, heat and light, SCOT and its maker,
smoke
But all of these are products of one thing
Which fire to new identities did bring;
AL of the first condition n--earth-were born,
And were by fire Of first appearance shorn;
So to that first condition part returns,
The flame that was, no human eye discerns,-
The other parts that fed the pow'r of fame
Exist in new conditions, substance same;
The fire itself all properties retains,
Naught was consumed, hence everything re-
MAINS
Thus did that all -pervading Mind create
From One Condition all its vast estate;
Itself did permeate all earthly sod
Till the vast World wrlthed with the soul of
God
With each condition, added, came the Plan
Which eliminated in the life OF man;
Thro' ages back, naught but wild fungus form
And shapeless flesh, did in that Chaos swarm .
Perhaps, from that huge world, Mind did de-
sign
Unnumbered worlds far greater than is mine,
But in them all Himself is manifest
Mind doth exist in many things unguessed.
Activity is life; staghation death;"
Life must have being in each mortal breath,
Else would the flesh be stagnant. So must Mind
To action, tho unbearing, be confined;
Mind, or the great Creator, finds its pow'r
In its utility-man, insect, brute, or fiow'r
Sans strife-utilify-the Father Force
Could StM exist, but with no actual course
II would acquire no strength, but still remain
Useless to self--G Consciousness Of pain.
Yes, from that first Condition, vague and crude,
That Universal Mind OF Solitude
/ Tbrouyhout MI Snnrp ronceivpd one rnonsIer