Philip Britts -- "The Eternal People"

Philip Britts (1917 - 1949) joined the Cotswold Bruderhof in England shortly before the Second World War. He had studied horticulture and loved to work in field and garden. The depth of his thought and faith, his dedication to the common life of peace and brotherhood, and his hope of the Kingdom of Justice found expression in his poetry through his love for nature and hard work.

THE ETERNAL PEOPLE

I sing of the eternal people,
And the eternal city,
The city of the eternal warfare
Which is the embassy of the ultimate peace.

When a nation sallies against another nation,
With spears or muskets, cannon or tanks,
For a year or for a generation,
That is not the true warfare,
Nor is that the eternal city.

And when one has proved itself the stronger,
And politicians ponder terms of peace,
And armies are recalled, and penalties are paid,
And the normal national life begins again
In pride or in humiliation,
That is not the true peace, the ultimate peace.

The combat ends and slowly is forgotten,
The political peace is sooner or later broken,
And sooner or later the city and the people become only a memory.
But the eternal people, In the eternal city,
They wage the eternal warfare
Because they are the embassy of the ultimate peace.

Is the eternal city full of gilded towers?
Are the streets broad and paved with marble?
Is she defended by gates of steel that endure?
And are her palaces of polished gold?
And the eternal people, are they strong?
Are they comely, are they stately in their walk?
Are they keener of intellect than other men,
And have they greater courage?

No, but the eternal city is other than this,
And the eternal people are other than this.
At times the city is a group of plaster cottages,
At times the city is built of wood with roofs of grass,
At times the city is a circle of tents pitched by a river.
At times the city is a clearing in a forest, with watch-fires but no houses.

And the eternal people are as other people,
No taller, no braver, no stronger, no cleverer.
In the eternal people many are weak.
Many are slow-thinking, many are timid.
The eternal people are as other people,
Only their eyes are more like the eyes of children,
Shining with the freedom of the eternal city.

Then how is it that this people is eternal?
And how is it that this city is eternal?
Why do they not pass into oblivion,
As all cities and all people pass at last into oblivion?

They are the eternal people
And it is the eternal city
Because they wage the eternal warfare,
Because they are the embassy of the ultimate peace.
They are not strong in themselves, the eternal people,
If they were strong they would be proud
And all that which is proud will perish.

Yet mighty things are done through them,
The hearts of haughty governments are moved,
Deadly seas are sailed across in safety,
And what is mightier than all this--
In the midst of ruinous war they are at peace.

The life of the eternal people
Lies in the hand of the invisible King,
The King who has neither castle nor court,
Who compels no man to be his subject,
Who compels no man to obey his word.
Even this King, the invisible King,
He is the King of the eternal people.

The true warfare, the eternal warfare,
Is not the striving of men against each other,
It is the war of the creator against the destroyer,
It is the war of the will to life against the will to death,
The war of love against hate
The war of unity against separation.
It is the war of the invisible King against the darkness.
Those who wage this war, they are the eternal people
And their city is the eternal city.

And the ultimate peace is the overthrow of all destructive forces,
It is the establishment of a new order upon the earth,
An order where love reigns over every aspect of life,
Over the relationships of all men to one another,
Over the actions of all men, towards themselves and towards all things outside themselves.
And this peace is established in the hearts of the eternal people,
Because they are the embassy of the ultimate peace,
For which they wage the eternal warfare.

The war of the eternal people is a hard war,
And to be one of them is a hard undertaking.
For the enemy attacks each one in his own heart,
And must be fought continually, each in his own blood.
And the hardness of the fight is that the enemy attacks in disguise.

He comes as a friend or a champion,
And is beautiful or desirable,
But he is a traitor, and his beauty turns to hideousness.
And the problem of the eternal people is to recognise the enemy,
For when he is revealed his power is broken.
This is the victory of the invisible King,
That he unmasks the enemy, and overcomes him.
When the enemy seeks to divide them,
When the enemy tries to deceive them,
He is stronger than the enemy.
And with his burning love he drives him out.

The weapons of the eternal people are not carnal weapons, The weapons of the eternal people are the will to Truth,
The will to unity and the means to unity which is Love And above all, loyalty to the invisible King.

The strength of the eternal people is that they are not divided against each other.
Only that which is undivided is eternal.
Part of the eternal city may be in one country,
And part may be a thousand miles away.
It is not a matter of space,
It is a matter of the unity of heart and mind against the common enemy.
And the enemy of the eternal people is the Prince of Death.

These are the commands of the invisible King:
That they are not divided against each other,
Either in spiritual pride or in material competition,
But that each sees in the other his comrade in arms,
And has perfect love towards him and helps him in the fight, And that they be all brothers fighting side by side the eternal warfare.

And the measure of the strength of the eternal people
Is the measure of their obedience to the invisible King.
Those who stand beneath the banner of the invisible King, They are the eternal people.
They are the people of the eternal warfare, and they are the embassy of the ultimate peace.

Attributed to Philip Britts
LINK

This poem is referenced in the previous post.