Fifty of the Protestant Ballads and " The Anti-Ritualistic Directorium, " of Martin F. Tupper ... New; and reprinted |
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CHURCH DECORATIONS. |
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 | Fifty of the Protestant Ballads |  |
CHURCH DECORATIONS.
O puerility!—but that no boys
Could be such dolts as these actors in stoles;
Sheer imbecility! playing with toys
In the dread presence of God and sick souls:
Subtle priestocracy! scheming to snare
Beauty and youth through the claptraps of sense,
Pious hypocrisy! Jesuits there
Selling the Saviour for Judas's pence.
Could be such dolts as these actors in stoles;
Sheer imbecility! playing with toys
In the dread presence of God and sick souls:
Subtle priestocracy! scheming to snare
Beauty and youth through the claptraps of sense,
Pious hypocrisy! Jesuits there
Selling the Saviour for Judas's pence.
12
Flirts of the chancel! ye milliner priests,
Deck'd in your laces and satinbound hems,
Bringing back Bäal's idolatrous feasts,
Bowings and music and flowers and gems,—
Protestant England, while tolerant still
Of conscience-led worship, whatever it be,
Rejects, ay and dreads, both the cunning and skill
Wherewith you would shackle the sons of the free.
Deck'd in your laces and satinbound hems,
Bringing back Bäal's idolatrous feasts,
Bowings and music and flowers and gems,—
Protestant England, while tolerant still
Of conscience-led worship, whatever it be,
Rejects, ay and dreads, both the cunning and skill
Wherewith you would shackle the sons of the free.
Firework devices, and trumpery wreaths,
Magical crosses and colour-bright scrolls;
Each emblem and symbol some pestilence breathes
Against the health-spirit of rational souls;
The pursefuls of money so squandered on flowers,
The time and the toil by fair idlers thus spent,—
With toys could they trifle so many lost hours
If truly of those who believe and repent?
Magical crosses and colour-bright scrolls;
Each emblem and symbol some pestilence breathes
Against the health-spirit of rational souls;
The pursefuls of money so squandered on flowers,
The time and the toil by fair idlers thus spent,—
With toys could they trifle so many lost hours
If truly of those who believe and repent?
| Fifty of the Protestant Ballads | |