Return to Home Page Return to Poems Index Set your Kindred Free - Must I, behind locked doors, forever wait, While you, who are on earth, procrastinate Work which would set me free? Must I cry out, unheard, forevermore, And wait, in vain, behind this bleak, barred door Because you would not see? - Must I, who once held loved ones tenderly, Stretch out my arms though out all eternity While others move ahead? Must I not know the joy of being sealed, By this great power God has now revealed, Because you failed your dead? - When I dwelt on the earth as mortal man, The Lord had not revealed his gospel plan, Which I accept as true! I would have done my own work had I known, And would not now be waiting here alone, Depending so on you! - Please hear my voice before it is too late, For you, and yours, will one day share my fate, If you heed not my plea, For God has spoken in this latter day, Commanding you to open up the way, To set your kindred free. - For in your day, the Lord has plainly said That no man can be saved without his dead, And so, I call once more; As I must look to my posterity, So must they also have the need of me. - Clara Lewis Jennings