II CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 7 - 13

1 Since we have these promises, dear
Beloved ones, let us come to clear
Ourselves from all filthiness in
The flesh and spirit, from all sin,
Perfecting holy in God’s fear.
2 Receive us, we have wronged no man,
And we have corrupted no man,
Nor have we cheated any man.
3 I don’t say this in contemnation,
For I’ve said before in my station,
That you are in our hearts to die
And live with you and not to vie.
4 I’m greatly bold of speech toward you,
Also greatly glorify you,
I’m fully comforted my ration
Of joy is great in tribulation.
5 For when we’d come into the land
Of Macedonia in band,
Our flesh had no rest, but we found
Trouble on every side unbound,
On the outside was violence,
And on the inside fears’ offence.
6 Nonetheless God who comforts those
Who are thrown down, He also chose
To comfort us by Titus coming,
7 And not just by his coming humming,
But by the comfort he gave you,
When he told us your great desire,
Your sorrow and your fervent fire
Of mind toward me, so I rejoiced
The more because of what he voiced.

St. Paul's a hardy sort, not sensitive.
He'd make a poor vicar where some folks live.
Or maybe not. It takes a bit of acid
To keep the job and still appear so placid
And unctious. Comfort has come into hand
From every vicar in the stiffling land
When kinfolk die, when others have been born.
St. Paul and every vicar are foresworn.
Beloved, I too would joy to see arrive
This Titus fellow, hale, sound and alive
And not a wraith or ghost about the hive.
Someone has told the bees the man is dead,
I'm almost sure of that, though in the spread
Of centuries the hat may be forlorn.

8 Though I had hurt your feelings by
A letter, I do not repent,
And though I did repent with sigh,
For I see the same letter made
You sorry for a short time stayed.
9 Now I rejoice, not in your sorrow,
But that your sorrow came to borrow
Repentance, for your sadness came
In a godly and burning flame,
So you might get damage by us
In nothing but in righteous.
10 For godly sadness makes repentance
Unto salvation from the sentence,
But worldly sadness works for death.
11 So see this very thing, when you
Were sad in godly sort and view,
What carefulness in formed in you,
Indeed what clearing of your due,
Indeed what indignation too,
And fear and vehement desire,
And zeal and what revengeful fire!
In everything you prove to be
Clear of the matter and its fee.
12 So when I wrote I did not write
Because of the one who for spite
Did wrong nor for the victim’s grace,
But so that our care by the face
Of God toward you might take its place.
13 So we were comforted in that
You were comforted, indeed sat
In greater joy for Titus’ joy
Who was refreshed at your employ.
14 For if I’ve boasted anything
To him of you, I do not sing
In shame, but as we spoke each thing
To you in truth, so boasting too
Before Titus too turns out true.
15 And his inward affection’s more
Abundant toward you, while in score
He minds all your obedience,
How with fear and in trembling sense
You received him come at the door.
16 So I rejoice that I can trust
In all things as well as I must.

St. Paul has just made the point that the rate
Of wickedness is overturned of late
By Your grace, so that everything the deil
Tries to do to destroy the common weal
Is turned to victory beneath Your heal.
Now he appears to justify his pose
Of having hurt their feelings by his prose
By the fact that their sorrow made them stop
To repent from their sins before the cop.
Beloved, the argument will not hold up
Before the judgement seat of my mind's tup.
Let all the world go down the gospel drain,
But I cling to Aristotelian vein
Of logic and demand Paul takes the rein.


1 Moreover, brothers, we make you
Know God's grace that has come in view
Of the groups of the called out ones
Of Macedonia in tonnes;
2 How that in a great trial of pain
Abundance of their joy to gain
From their deep poverty abounds
Unto the riches of their grounds
Of generosity in sounds.  
3 For to their power I bear witness,
Indeed, beyond their power's address
They gave of themselves without guess.
4 They begged us with entreaties that
We might receive the gift out flat,
And take the job to serve the saints.
5 And they did so, not by our plaints,
But first gave from their own restraints
To the Lord, and to us as by
The will of God up in the sky.
6 For that we wished that Titus too
As he had started in the pew,
So he also finish in you
The same grace that you had in view.
7 That's why as you abound in all
Things of faith, utterance and call
Of knowledge and in diligence,
And in your love to us with sense
Abound in this grace too to fall.  
8 I don't speak by command, but by
The chance others give on the sly
To prove your love's sincerity.

I'm glad to see Paul's honest at the whip,
When he says he did not make such a quip
By Your command, but it was just his rough
Way to wound everyone he saw as tough
With his mismatching of words at the heel.
I'm glad he does not make it divine deal.
But every institution that instates
A church must run roughshod across the gates
Of inner temple, inner light, the grail,
And crush the true and sweet beneath the mail.
No kingdom, even David's, can rely
On love alone and tenderness to try.
The violence controlled teaches men why
The earth is earth and only sky is sky.

9 For you know the grace in degree
Of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he,
Though he was rich, yet for your sakes
Became poor and you through his shakes
Of poverty might take rich stakes.
10 And so I give my advice here:
This is expedient in gear
For you, who have begun before,
Not only to do on that score,
But also be forward last year.
11 So now carry out the first plan,
Just as there's a desire to man,
So be there readiness to do
Out of what you came to acrue.  
12  For if there be first willing mind,
It's approved by what's in the bind,
And not by what he lacks in kind.
13 For I mean not that other men
Be eased, and you burdened again:  
14 But rather by equality,
That now at this time you freely
Of your abundance may supply
Their want, that their bounding supply
May also your want by and by
Fulful, that equally you lie.
15 As it is written, “He that had
Gathered much had nothing to gad
Over; and he who took up few
Had no lack in the residue.”

St. Paul knows well that institutions need
To raise the money to feed others' greed,
And churches thrive where badgered people take
From pockets word a farthing for the sake
Of those who serve with lifeblood to acquire
The church steps and the altar and the fire.
The hand that washes others must return
To find the chaffing reddened there to burn,
But can console the moles with what they earn
To know the tables may be turned to spurn.
A first tithe and a second, then the alms
Are gathered in the chest under the palms.
Beloved, the reason I stand here alone
Is simply as I vie, I have no bone.

16 But thanks to God, who put the same
Earnest care in the heart that came
Of Titus for you without blame.
17 For he indeed was glad to take
The exhortation, but the shake
On his own account went to you.
8 And we have sent with him in crew
The brother, the one whose praise true
Is in the gospel throughout all
The groups of called out ones in stall;
19 And not that only, but who too
Was chosen of the called out crew
To travel with us with this grace,
Which is administered in trace
By us to the same Lord's acclaim,
And of your ready mind in frame:
20 Avoiding so no man should blame
Us in this wealth we treat in fame,  
21 Providing for honest things, not
Only in the sight and the plot
Of the Lord, but also in sight
Of men. 22 And we have sent out right
With them our brother, whom we've shown
Diligent in many things grown,
But now much more diligent by
The great confidence with which I
Regard you there beneath the sky.
23 As for Titus, he is my mate,
My fellow helper in your state,
As for our brothers, they remain
The messengers of called out fane,
The glory of Christ without stain.  
24 So show them in the sight of all
The groups of called out ones in stall
The proof of your love and the rate
Of our boasting about your state.

The paragraph, though beautiful in word
And sentiment hardly ever so stirred,
Has but the motive to get those who heard
To show proof of their love and what is said
In boast of them in apostolic thread.
The Bible has within its folds the mate
Of every human sort of love and hate
And rhetoric set out upon the plate.
Beloved, I turn the dial, I turn the switch
And search for something other than the twitch
Of human pride and false humility.
I look for blinding glory on my spree,
And as I search I find in my degree
The inner temple, inner throne's decree.


1 As for the service to the saints,
There's no need I should write complaints,
2 For I know of your attitude
To come forward, so I was lewd
In boasting of you to the men
Of Macedonia again,
That Achaia was ready then
A year ago; and so your zeal
Has provoked many to take heel.  
3 Still I sent the brothers to be
Sure our boasting of you freely
Should not be vain to bear the tree,
As I said you may be ready;
4 Lest it take place that some from there
In Macedonia come to share
With me and find you unprepared,
So we or you be shamed we dared
To boast of you with confidence.
5 So I thought needful to exhort
The brothers to go in good sport
Before to you, and gather there
The bounty that you had to share
To have it ready and with care,
And not in covetousness' pence.
6 But so: The one who sows a bit
Shall reap a small crop from his wit;
And one who sows a lot shall reap
A harvest counting up a heap.
7 Each one, as he in heart decides,
Not grudgingly, or pushed from prides,
God love a cheerful giver's tides.  
8 God's able to make all gifts great
For you, so you always in grate
Will have enough, and so abound
In all well doing on the ground.  
9 (As it is written, He's dispersed
Abroad; He's given to the versed
In poverty, His righteousness
Remains for ever in the press.  
10 Now He who ministers the seed
To sower, serves bread to your need,
And multiplies your seed when sown
To increase your righteous fruits grown.
11 Being enriched in everything
To all bountifulness in ring,
Which causes all of us to sing
To God with greater thanksgiving.  
12 The working of this service not
Only supplies the saints in plot,
But is abundant also by
Many thanksgivings to God high;  
13 Experiencing this service they
Glorify God because the way
You submit to Christ's gospel sway
Brings liberal hope where they stay
And to all men out there to stray.  
14 And by their prayer for you, which long
After you for God's grace in song,
15 Thanks be to God for what He gave
Unspeakable from cross to glaive.


1 Now I Paul myself beg of you
By the meekness of Christ in view
And gentleness, that I who am
Held vile among you in the ham,
But bold when I get off the cam,
2 I beg you, so I'll not be bold
When I come in there from the cold
In confidence, with which I think
To be bold against some on brink,
Who think of us as if we walked
According to the flesh and balked.
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we
Do not war after the flesh, see:  
4 The weapons of our warfare are
Not carnal, but mighty in star
Through God to pull down holds' strong bar;
5 To throw down what assumptions mar,
And every high thing raised in car
Against the knowledge of God's way,
And bring every thought in sway
Of Christ; 6 and being at the point
To take vengeance on every joint
Of disobedience, when your
Obedience fulfils its store.  
7 Do you look on the outward peels?
If any man trusts what he feels
As being Christ's, let him rethink,
Just as he is Christ's on the brink,
Just so are we Christ's other link.

The first time that a saw the preaching jack,
And peered within the painted, spotted crack
Of pulpit, I had fulfilled three-score years
Alotted to mankind, as it appears.
In wonder I gazed at the sight and thought
Whether I'd live to see another sought.
I looked upon both outward and the in,
The covering and the secret in bin,
And then turned back to run my life's last win.
But see! Instead of being at the spoil
Of sixty years to meet another coil,
Just twenty steps beyond I saw the face
Of jack-in-pulpit in more sacred place.
The years may or may not be ones of grace.

8 Even if I boasted some more
Of our authority to score,
Which the Lord's given us to show
In edification in glow,
And not for your destruction's show,
I'd not be ashamed that I tore.
9 But I'd not want to appear to
Terrify you by letters' view.
10 For his letters, they say, are true
In weight and power, but he in view
When bodily, is weak, and too
His speech is contemptible cue.
11 Let such a one think this, that, such
As we are in word by the touch
Of letters when we are absent,
Such will be too when we're present.  
12 For we dare not make ourselves of
The elite, or compare above
With some that commend themselves: but
In measuring themselves by strut
Among themselves, they are not wise.
13 But we will not boast of things that
Have no measure, but by the mat
Of the rule which God gave to us,
Which reaches you and omnibus.  
14 For we stretch not ourselves beyond,
As though we reached not to your frond:
For we have come as far as to you
Also in Christ's gospel in view:  
15 Not boasting things outside our bound,
Of other men's work on the ground,
But having hope, your faith increased,
We'll be improved by your released
By our rule abundantly creased,  
16 To preach the gospel in those places
Beyond you, not boasting in races
Of other men brought to our traces.  
17 But the one who glories, let him
Glory in the Lord to his brim.
18 For not one who commends himself
Is approved, but the one on shelf
Whom the Lord commends at the rim.

The fact is self-praise is not taken by
The rabble for their own reasons to spy.
The truth about a man is truth no matter
Who says it, self or any one the fatter.
Who as well as what depends on the choice
Of dignity the crowd gives to the voice.
In fact Your commendation on the spot
Of any man is rather to be got
To detriment and loss in marketplace
Or in the factory or churchly space.
Beloved, praise me or not, I fit the bill
To praise You whether you are on the hill
Of Zion or of Sinai. Arafat
Is just another place where I've been at.


1 I wish to God you'd bear with me
A little in my own folly,
And you indeed put up with me.
2 For I am jealous over you
With godly jealousy as due:
For I've engaged you to a man,
So I may present you in span
As a chaste virgin to Christ's plan.  
3 But I fear, lest by any means,
As the serpent deceived Eve's spleens
Through his own subtilty, you your
Minds should be corrupted before
Simplicity that is in Christ.
4 For if the one who comes is preaching
Another Jesus we're not teaching,
Or if you get another spirit,
One you've not got from us or near it,
Or yet another Gospel taught
Which you've not heard that has been wrought,
You might well bear with him in plot.
5 For I suppose I was no whit
Behind the chiefest men that sit
As the apostles some deemed fit.  
6 But though I may be rude in speech,
Yet not in knowledge of the peach;
But we have been made fully known
Among you in all things as shown.  
7 Have I committed an offence
In abasing myself as dense
That you might be exalted, since
I've preached to you freely like prince
The gospel of God in my stints?  
8 I robbed other groups of called out,
Took wages from them for my bout
Of service to you without doubt.  

Though rude in speech and knowledge, I take no
Other Christ, Spirit, or a Gospel show
Besides the one I find first in the row.
There is no other Christ than in the flesh,
Material and tangible and fresh.
There is no other Spirit that that made
To bring his presence and Yours on parade,
And there's no Gospel but fear You alone,
And praise You who sits on the judgement throne,
The call to bow to You who made all things.
And so I turn from other sports and rings.
Beloved, let my rude speech and knowledge reach
As far as the path beneath firs that teach
The rosy morning and the evening peach.

9 And when I was present with you,
And was in need, no man in pew
Took charge of me, for what I lacked
The Macedianian brothers backed;
I've kept myself from being here
A burden to you, so I'll steer.  
10 As the truth of Christ is in me,
No man shall stop me by decree
Of boasting this in Achaia.  
11 Why so? Because I don't love you?
God knows the truth of such a stew.

The worst crimes of both word and deed are done,
Beloved, from motives of love on the run.
Hardly a man or woman is alive
But think that with love in the heart and hive
Just anything done is excused to strive.
The one who loves can shove the dagger in
Without a qualm, because it is no sin,
For love, true love, has sanctified the way.
When I hear the word spoken on a day,
I know before the night has closed a ray,
That I will feel the pain of one to stay
Who for my own good and in loving pay
Destroys my mountain, opens me to grief,
Robs me blind and then smiles beyond belief.

12 But what I do, that I will do
To stop those with a trap in view,
So their boasting like ours will strew.
13 For such are false apostles, and
Deceitful workers, changing hand
Into apostles of Christ manned.  
14 No marvel; for Satan himself
Is turned to light's angel and elf.
15 So it's no great thing that his slaves
Pretend to come out on the waves
As ministers of righteousness;
Whose end shall be at the address
Of the works that they do possess.
16 I say again, Let no man think
Me a fool; yet if so then link
Me as a fool, so I can boast
A little more myself in toast.
17 What I say, I don't say by word
Of the Lord, but by foolish herd,
As boastingly when it occurred.

I'm glad that good St. Paul refuses flat
To justify his words upon his mat
With claims they come from You and where You sat.
His all too human slight and boast is great
Enough without that hope and dying fate.
Though cynic in the thought that fools are best
Received in every congregation's test,
His cynicism bests reality.
So it seems under every flaming tree.
Beloved, the one who says fool is in danger
Of hell-fire according to spirit's ranger,
So good St. Paul may meet his client there
Beyond the shores of brimstone and the fair,
Beside the banquet table where they dare.

18 Since many glory in the flesh,
I'll also glory as afresh.  
19 For you're glad to put up with fools,
Since you find yourselves wise in schools.
20 For you are hurt if someone comes
To bind you or devour your sums,
Or steal, or lord it over you,
Or strike you in the face for rue.
21 I speak as of reproach, as though
We had been weak and brought in tow.
But if anyone here is bold,
A fool, I say I'm bold as told.  
22 Are they Hebrews? Then so am I.
Are they Israelites? I can try.
Are they the seed of Abraham?
So am I too, it's not a scam.
23 Are they the ministers of Christ?
I make a foolish question spliced.
I am more than they are sufficed:
In labours more abundant, and
In stripes above measure to stand,
In prisons more frequent than planned,
In threat of death more often scanned.
24 Of the Jews five times I received
Forty save one as though reprieved.
25 Three times I was beaten with rods,
Once I was stoned, and without sods
Three times shipwrecked, a night and day
I've been upon the ocean's sway.
26 I've been on longer trips more times,
In perils of waters in rimes,
In danger of my countrymen,
In danger of heathen again,
In perils of the town and glen,
The sea and false brethren of men.
27 I've been in weariness and pain,
In hunger and in thirst, in reign
Of fasting often, and in cold
And in my nakedness untold.

It is a human thing to boast about
The trials and temptations of a scout.
At age of sixty some still brag that they
Walked three miles to the schoolhouse every day,
Both rain and shine and through the drifts of snow.
Bragging about the cold and heat and show
Of weather is so common of address
That Paul does not keep me here more to guess.
If his trials had been beyond power to bear
He would not be now bragging of his share.
True grief is deeper than the quest to speak,
And those who have seen horrors in the creak,
If they survive at all, it's with a tongue
Fast sealed against the powers of the lung.

28 Beside those things that are without,
I bear the daily burden's rout
From care of all groups of called out.
29 Who's weak, and am I not weak too?
Who is offended, and in due
Do I not burn in offence too?  
30 If I need glory, I will stand
In glory of the things in hand
Of my infirmities in brand.
31 The God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who's blessed and adored
For evermore, knows now that I
Do not and never tell a lie.
32 In Damascus the governor
Under Aretas the king's shore,
Kept the city of Damascenes
With a fort, wanting from his spleens
To take me and arrest my beans.
33 And through a window once let down
In wicker-basket from the town
Outside the wall, outside its bands
I then escaped out of his hands.

I see. Our Lord Jesus Christ has a God.
He has a Father smiting with a rod.
The Father part I suppose cannot be
A literal thing, for of progeny
Only the heathen gods are capable and sound.
But if our Lord has any God that's found,
That sets him off from Catholic Trinity
As well as Baptist One out on a spree.
Beloved, You are my God and the God too
Of Jesus and of St. Paul in his pew.
You are my Father of a sort, since You
Created me from dust and breath and dew.
Beloved, let me down in Your baskets when
I find I have to flee Trinity's men.


1 It is not expedient for me
To boast, I guess. I will make free
To speak of  visions and unstored
Of revelations of the Lord.  
2 I knew a man in Christ above
Fourteen years ago, if in shove
Of the body, I cannot tell;
Or whether out of body well,
I cannot say: God knows the spell;
He was caught up to third heaven's swell.  
3 And I knew such a man, if he
In body or out of body,
I cannot tell, God knows decree;
4 How he was swept in paradise,
Heard unspeakable words' device,
Which it is not lawful for man
To utter. 5 Of such ones will I
Boast, yet of my own self will I
Not glory, except in the fly
Of my infirmities to try.
6 For though I would desire to glory,
I shall not be a fool for story;
For I will say the truth: but I
Refrain myself, lest any guy
Should think of me above that which
He sees me to be in the pitch.

It seems that Paul was led and taught by one
Who trod the golden paths of star and sun,
Who opened secrets treasures of the snow
And saw the wheels of universe turn slow.
It seems the Enoch came in search of him
And brought him to the world's uttermost rim
And there gave him the view of secrets met
Only beneath the noonday tents well set
When You, Beloved, and Your companions file
Across the desert sands a weary mile.
Beloved, I sometimes peek beneath the veil
Of truth set round the earth and like a sail
To find the footsteps of the truly great
Still mounting on the furnace and the rate.

7 And lest I should be raised above
The measure through abundance of
The revelations, there was given
To me a thorn in flesh to live in,
The messenger of Satan to
Buffet me, lest I should undue
Be exalted above the true.  
8 For this thing I besought the Lord
Three times, that it might be restored.
9 And he said to me, “My grace be
Sufficient for thee: for my strength
Is made perfect in weakness, see.”
Most gladly therefore I at length
Would rather glory in my loss,
That power of Christ may rest on me.  
10 So I take pleasure in weakness,
Reproaches, and in need's address,
In persecution and distress
For Christ's sake, for when I am weak
Then I am strong and at my peak.
11 I have become a fool in boasting;
You made me do it with your coasting:
Because you should be praising me
Instead, for I'm of same degree
As the greatest apostles tree,
Though I am nothing you can see.
12 The signs of an apostle true
Were patiently wrought among you,
In signs and wonders, mighty deeds.
13 For in what were you kept in need
Behind the other called out breed,
Except that I myself with speed
Was not a burden to your greed?
Forgive me for this wrong decreed.
14 Behold, the third time I am ready
To come to you; and will be steady,
No burden to you: for I seek
Not what is yours, but you to speak:  
For the children ought not to lay
Up for the parents, but the way
Is for parents in children's pay.  

The signs of an apostle seem to be
Not only miracles worked faithfully,
But also rantings against every man,
Reproaches couched in boastings of a span.
The sign of an apostle seems to take
For granted that such must put out a stake
Of gain for those who listen to his words,
Instead of getting profit from the herds.
Beloved, I come and go among such men
As have no message to speak in the glen,
As have no ear to hear a word well-taught,
But vaunt themselves above each human plot.
Beloved, I come and go, and yet I know
You stand above the movement and the show.

15 And I will very gladly spend
And be spent for you on the mend;
Though the more abundantly I
Love you, the less I'm loved thereby.  
16 I did not burden you, it's true,
But being crafty I caught you
With guile. 17  Did I make gain of you
By any of them I sent you?  
18 I desired Titus, and with him
I sent a brother, brave and trim.
Did Titus take profit from you?
Are we not just alike, we two?
Did we not take same steps in view?  
19 Again, do you think we excuse
Ourselves to you? We may accuse
Before God in Christ, but we do
Everything, darlings, for your due.  

It is perverse to plague unwilling heart
By saying the more one takes hated's part
The more love pours from apostolic cart.
That is perverse in every sense I know.
It is perversion of the human show.
If Paul took not a cent from those who heard
His preaching of the Gospel's sacred word,
Does that give him the right to guile? Say no,
Belovèd, make reproach against his row.
With Titus Paul deigns now to make a pair,
Though he was often out to change his share,
And one after another in disgust
Left him to wallow in his lust and dust.
Beware, Beloved, the human sort of crust.

20 I am afraid, lest when I come,
I shall not find you but a bum,
The kind of people you'd not be,
Debating, envying, in wrath,
Strifes, backbitings, and in the path
Of whisperings, pride, and confusion:
21 And lest when I come in intrusion,
My God will humble me by you,
And I'll take sorrow in the crew
Of sinners who have not repented
On uncleanness and unrelented
Fornication and vice which they
Have been committing every day.

Beloved, give me the faith that turns to You
Repenting of the many things I do
To satisfy my lust and greed and too
The cruelty of heart that veils make true.
Beloved, give me the faith that Paul would see
Upon the folk of Corinth running free,
Repentance of the unclean thing and more,
The vice that is so common in this store.
Beloved, I grasp the vision now and then
I turn to whirl about the earthly den,
The inner temple where Your faith is taught
Until I find my step on fertile plot.
Commission of the great and small behind
Me lies the glowing of the sun and mind.


1 This is the third time I am coming
To you. In the mouth of two humming
Or three witnesses shall each word
Be established among the heard.
2 I told you before, and foretell
You, as if I were present well,
The second time; and being gone,
Now I write to them who are drawn
To sin, and to all others, that,
If I come again on the mat,
I will not spare, I say out flat:
3 Since you seek proof of Christ in me
Speaking to you not words weakly,
But among you and mightily.  
4 Though he was crucified as weak,
Yet he lives by God's power to speak.
For we are also weak in him,
But we shall live with him and trim
By the power of God toward your rim.  
5 Examine yourselves, whether you
Are in the faith; prove yourselves true.
Do you not know yourselves how that
Jesus the Christ is in your flat,
Unless you're reprobates at that?
6 But I trust that you'll know that we
Are not reprobate in degree.  

Though Paul pretends to take the law to task
In what's to follow in the Gospel bask,
The truth is he is steeped in fortitude
Of Torah and of Tanakh as his brood.
It does not fail. For witnesses he takes
The mouth of two or three, make no mistakes,
That is the Torah rule. And so he makes
Of none effect protests in grace's wakes.
Beloved, write on my heart as You did then
Your law on heart of Paul and other men,
So that when I intend to do the ill,
Rejecting letter of the law and bill,
I turn around in inconsistent will
And bind my word to Your commandments still.

7 Now I pray to God you will do
No evil; not that we should view
As though approved, but that you too
Do what is honest, though we were
As reprobates. 8 To so occur,
We can do nothing against truth,
But only for the truth with ruth.  
9 For we are glad, when we are weak,
And you are strong: and this we seek,
Even your perfection at peak.  
10 That's why I write these things, though gone,
Lest being present, I'd be drawn
To use sharp words according to
The power which the Lord gave in view
To me to edify, not to
Destruction of those in the pew.
11 At last, brothers, good-bye. And be
Perfect, of good comfort, and be
Agreed, and live there peacefully.
And the God of love and peace be
Among you now and faithfully.  
12 Greet each other with holy kiss.
13 All the saints greet you none to miss.
14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
And the love of God unsufficed,
And communion of Holy Ghost,
Be with you each and every host. Amen.

Ah, here at last is proof the Trinity
Is the way You are manifest and free!
We've got at least here the favoured in three.
Of course the order's wrong, that makes no mind.
It does not say all three are God and blind.
It does not say all three are equal in
Eternity and in deity's din.
It does not say all three in substance take
The same drought of homousian mistake.
At least these small faults do not dim the faith
Of those who hold to Trinity and wraith.
Beloved, though You were three or four or more,
Or any number to sit on the floor,
I praise You from the throne and from the door.  

AUTHOR: THOMAS G. MCELWAIN

Copyright © 2007 Adams & McElwain Publishers and Thomas McElwain First Published in two volumes, The Beloved and I 2005, and Led of the Beloved, 2006. Second Edition, 2010 Third and revised edition, 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this verse commentary on the sacred Scriptures may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from publisher.

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