Allison Davis, "Minister" (1928)
You have something in you
Which has made you feel the Church
A bigger thing than yourself,—
A Baptist church,—
And which has made you go months without salary,
So that the Church might be saved;
Something
Which has made your talk
Like a friend’s silent confidence,
And your face unlike other men’s,
And made even your wife
Respect you.
Do you wish to call it “God”?
I know you will speak it quietly.
Published in The Crisis, March 1928