Fifty of the Protestant Ballads and " The Anti-Ritualistic Directorium, " of Martin F. Tupper ... New; and reprinted |
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“CATHOLIC.” |
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 | Fifty of the Protestant Ballads |  |
“CATHOLIC.”
Catholic! this one word of crabbed GreekHath work'd the world more woe than tongue can speak,
Since Antichrist spelt out that dubious name,
In letters mix'd of martyr-blood and flame!
Catholic; we may gather its intent,
As some of old its nobler teaching meant;
The Creed most true, eternal and sublime,
Held by all saints in every land and time,
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In each man's home of every tribe and name—
Thus “universal” is the wiser word,
Of what by all men was received and heard,
And love to all, the Christian's nobler test,
Were the true type of one true creed profest.
But “Catholic” has now the casuist sense
Of Romish pride, and priestcraft, and pretence;
Full of dread thoughts of dungeons and the stake,
Tormenting man for honest conscience' sake—
So, let us change it; as the Jesuit race
Mulct the dear name of Jesus of all grace;
As the high name of Holy Church is found
In the Red Sea of persecution drowned,
So “Catholic” is mingled with the thought
Of horrid deeds by superstition wrought—
And may not in the Protestant's pure church
Be left a mine of doubt for Rome to search;
So, in Revision be it swept indeed
From every rubric, prayer, and text, and creed—
Not to perplex the untaught Christian's mind,
With sense that palters in a double kind.
| Fifty of the Protestant Ballads | |