University of Virginia Library

REVIVAL.

Celestial love! no self-created sound
In the cold depth of man's corrupted heart,
But rather, a responsive echo, waked
By Love supernal, art Thou, when sincere.
By God's to man, man's love to God begins;
And christianity is Christ received,
The soul possessing, and Himself possess'd.
Then thaws the heart, however iced and dead,
In tears which glow with gratitude divine.
So Luther felt, when Love's almighty voice
Becalm'd him; round the Cross he ever read
The page of heaven, and in that Fountain wash'd
His soul to whiteness, which for sin unclosed
In streaming mercy from our wounded Lord.
Light, peace, and order round his being throng'd
In rich communion; prayer and praise arose,
Like native incense from the soul renew'd;
And holiness, man's paradise regain'd,
No effort now, but second nature seem'd,—
Not labour done, but life itself enjoy'd.
Yet, who can tell, as stern-eyed Law retired
And the mild Gospel o'er his conscience breathed
Like Jesus, when He sigh'd the breath of peace,
How on his heart the Bible's image grew,
Till, like a throbbing counterpart, it beat
In living echo to the truth it loved!
While doctrines now, which once with scowling front
Black as the shades which over Sinai hung,
Appall'd him, soft as Christ's own pity, smiled.
No more the penance vile, with venal aim
To bribe Eternal Justice, was achieved:
In Christ her all-in-all stern Conscience found
And, sprinkled with His blood, her claim withdrew
For ever: penal Law its lightning veil'd;
And when from sickness, pale and purified
The convert of the Cross in health arose,
He clung to Jesus with a clasping soul
Devoted, lifted high o'er legal fears,
And from His wounds saw earth's atonement flow.