from Vach El, Springfield’s own American Dervish, utopian dreamer, and anti-work poet, patron saint of the Uplift Church of Beauty (our local Moorish Orthodox Church).

The Gospel of Beauty
by Vachel Lindsay

Being the new "Creed of a Beggar" by that vain and foolish mendicant, Nicholas Vachel Lindsay. Printed for his personal friends in his home village—Springfield, Illinois. It is his intention to carry this gospel across the country beginning June, 1912, returning in due time.

I. (Prologue.) I come to you penniless and afoot to bring a message. I am starting a new religious idea. The idea does not say "No" to any creed that you have heard. After this, let the denomination to which you now belong be called in your heart The Church of Beauty or The Church of the Open Sky. The Church of Beauty has two sides: The Love of Beauty and The Love of God.