The Illuminated Cross

[Quantum]

The Illuminated Cross

By Janet Bolton

[From The American Rosae Crucis February 1917]

I hold enshrined within my memory
A dream, for it was strangely real to me;
I stood alone, and in the gathering gloom
I saw a giant cross before me loom;
My heart stood still,--I gazed with eyes of dread,
In vain I tried to turn and would have fled
But fear had entered like a poisoned dart
And left me numb with terror stricken heart
And transfixed gaze upon the cross of stone
That like a giant spectre towered alone
With empty arms outstretched against the sky,--
"My cross,"--I heard my anguished spirit cry.

And when I would have swooned in darkest night,
Then lo upon the cross there shone a light,--
A radiant light,--most wondrous bright and warm,
And to my troubled soul there came a calm,--
A peaceful calm serenely sweet and deep,
Remaining 'till I woke from out my sleep,--
Awoke to find my cross was with me still--
An aching void the years could never fill.

Yet o'er my spirit swept a calm delight
That wrapped my shivering soul in warmth and light;
Indeed, no less a cross it still would be,
But an Illuminated Cross for me,--
A lighted milestone on life's journey set;
And there where strange and devious pathways met
I kneeled to bless the cross and breathe this prayer,--
"God help all those who have a cross to bear
And fail to see the Light a-shining there."