It the mind is wearied by study, or the body worn with sickness, THE TRAIN OF RELIGION. STAY awhile, thou blessed band, be entreated, daughters of heaven! hereafter. Who among the glorious art thou, that walkest a Goddess and a Queen, Thy crown of living stars, and a golden cross thy sceptre? Who among flowers of loveliness is she, thy seeming herald, Yet she boasteth not thee nor herself, and her garments are plain in their neatness? Wherefore is there one among the train, whose eyes are red with weeping, Yet is her open forehead beaming with the sun of ecstacy? And who is that blood-stained warrior, with glory sitting on his crest? And who, that solemn sage, calm in majestic dignity? Also, in the lengthening troop see I some clad in robes of triumph, That rejoicedst in tracking wisdom where the eye was too dull to note its: Who quickenest with light and beauty the leaden face of matter, Who not unheard, though silent, fillest earth's gardens with music, And not unseen, though a spirit, dost look down upon us from he stars, That hast been to me for oil and for wine, to cheer and uphold my soul, Of thee, for well have I loved thee, of thee may I ask in hope, SON, happy art thou that Wisdom hath led thee hitherward: For otherwise never hadst thou known the joy-giving name of our Queen Behold her, the life of men, the anchor of their shipwrecked hopes: Behold her, the shepherdess of souls, who bringeth back the wanderers to God. And for that modest herald, she is named on earth, Humility: And hast thou not known, my son, the tearful face of Repentance? Ligeance we sware to our God, and ligeance well have we kept; It is only the band of the redeemed who can tell thee the fulness of that name: (18) Yet will I comfort thee, my son, for the love wherewith thou hast loved me, And thou shalt touch for thyself the golden sceptre of Religion. So that blessed train passed by me; but the vision was sealed upon my soul; And its memory is shrined in fragrance, for the promise of the Spirit was true: I learn from the silent poem of all creation round me, How beautiful their feet, who follow in that train OF A TRINITY. (19) DESPISE not, shrewd reckoner, the God of a good man's worship, And the height of unbelieving wisdom is to question all things. But when all is clear, what place is left for faith? Tell me the sum of thy knowledge,—is it yet assured of any thing? Despise not what is wonderful, when all things are wonderful around thee. From the multitude of like effects, thou sayest, behold a law: And the matter thou art baffled in unmaking, is to thy mind an element. Then look abroad, I pray thee, for analogy holdeth every where, And the Maker hath stamped his name on every creature of his hand : I know not of a matter or a spirit, that is not three in one, And truly should account it for a marvel, a coin without the image of its Cæsar. MAN talketh of himself as ignorant, but judgeth by himself as wise: thine own, And suffer the passing speculation suggested by analogies to faith In each of its uncounted waves holdeth up a mirror to its Maker: With each of its trefoil leaves pointeth at the trinity of God. Let him whose eyes have been unfilmed, read this homily in all things, There be three grand principles; life, generation, and obedience; There be three grand unities, variously mixed in trinities, Three catholic divisors of the million sums of matter: Yea, though science hath not seen it, climbing the ladder of experiment. The pine, and the rock to which it clingeth, and the eagle sailing around it; The lion, and the northern whale, and the deeps wherein he sporteth; Matter, and breath, and instinct, unite in all beasts of the field; Yea, the very breath of man's life consisteth of a trinity of vapours, SHALL all things else be in mystery, and God alone be understood? If God be nothing more than one, a child can compass the thought; |