Only God Is Great

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 2, 1900

A CERTAIN pasha, dead these thousand years, Once from his harem fled in sudden tears,

And had this sentence on the city's gate Deeply engraved, “Only God is great.”

So these four words above the city's noise Hung like the accent of an angel's voice,

And evermore, from the high barbican, Saluted each returning caravan.

Lost is that city's glory. Every gust Lifts, with crisp leaves, the unknown pasha's dust.

And all is ruin — save one wrinkled gate Whereon is written, “ONLY GOD IS GREAT.”

—Selected.