THE TRUE CHURCH.
I asked a holy man one day,
"Where is the one true church, I pray?"
"Go round the world," said he, "and search:
No man hath found the one true church."
I pointed to a spire, cross-crowned.
"The church is false!" he cried, and frowned.
But, murmuring he had told me wrong,
I pointed to the entering throng.
He answered, "If a church be true,
It hath not many, but a few."
Around the font the people pressed,
And crossed themselves from brow to breast.
"A cross!" he cried, "writ on the brow
In water!--is it Christ's?--look thou!
"Each forehead, frowning, sheds it off:
Christ's cross abides through scowl and scoff."
Then, looking through the open door,
We saw men kneeling on the floor;
Faint candles, by the daylight dimmed,--
Like wicks the foolish virgins trimmed;
Fair statues of the saints, as white
As now their robes are, in God's light;
Sun-ladders, dropped aslant, all gold,--
Like stairs the angels trod of old.
Around, above, from nave to roof,
He gazed, and said, in sad reproof,--
"Alas! who is it understands
God's temple is not made with hands?"
--We walked along a shaded way,
Beneath the apple-blooms of May,
And came upon a church whose dome
Bore still the cross, but not for Rome.
We brushed a cobweb from a pane,
And gazed within the sacred fane
"Do prayers," he asked, "the more avail,
If murmured nigh an altar-rail?
"Does water sprinkled from a bowl
Wash any sin from any soul?
"Do tongues that taste the bread and wine
Speak truer after, by that sign?
"The very priest, in gown and bands,
Hath lying lips and guilty hands!"
"He speaks no error," answered I;
"He says the living all shall die,
"The dead all rise; and both are true;
Both wholesome doctrines,--old, not new.
Pages:
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206