Faith Is An Oasis In

Only Yesterday I Was No Different Than Them, Yet I Was Saved. I Am Explaining To You The Way Of Life Of A People Who Say Every Sort Of Wicked Thing About Me Because I Sacrificed Their Friendship To Gain My Own Soul. I Left The Dark Paths Of Their Duplicity And Turned My Eyes Toward The Light Where There Is Salvation, Truth, And Justice. They Have Exiled Me Now From Their Society, Yet I Am Content. Mankind Only Exiles The One Whose Large Spirit Rebels Against Injustice And Tyranny. He Who Does Not Prefer Exile To Servility Is Not Free In The True And Necessary Sense Of Freedom.

O Love, Whose Lordly Hand Has Bridled My Desires, And Raised My Hunger And My Thirst To Dignity And Pride, Let Not The Strong In Me And The Constant Eat The Bread Or Drink The Wine That Tempt My Weaker Self. Let Me Rather Starve, And Let My Heart Parch With Thirst, And Let Me Die And Perish, Ere I Stretch My Hand To A Cup You Did Not Fill, Or A Bowl You Did Not Bless.

Do Not Be Merciful, But Be Just, For Mercy Is Bestowed Upon The Guilty Criminal, While Justice Is All That The Innocent Man Requires.

Doubt Is A Pain Too Lonely To Know That Faith Is His Twin Brother. Doubt Is A Foundling Unhappy And Astray, And Though His Own Mother Who Gave Him Birth Should Find Him And Enfold Him, He Would Withdraw In Caution And In Fear.

Poetry Is Not The Opinion Stated. It Is A Song That Appears Instead Of A Bloody Wound Or A Smiling Mouth.