Classic Poem

We come with peace and reason,
We come with love and light,
To banish black self-treason
And everlasting night.

We know no god nor devil,
We neither drive nor lead —
We come to banish evil
In thought as well as deed.

And this our grandest mission,
And this our purest worth:
To banish Superstition,
The blackest curse on earth.

We come to pass no sentence,
For ours is not the power —
The coward's vain repentance
But wastes the waiting hour.

'Tis not for us to lengthen
The years of wasted lives;
We come to help and strengthen
The goodness that survives.

We promise nought hereafter,
We cannot conquer pain;
But work, and rest, and laughter,
Will soothe the tortured brain.

That which is lost, we cannot
Restore to any one —
But Truth and Right must triumph,
And Justice must be done!

We come in many guises;
But every one is plain
To each pure thought that rises
Again and yet again.

We are ourselves and human,
And ours our destiny;
The souls of Man and Woman
Divorced by vanity.