University of Virginia Library

REFORMATION.

Pale with devotion, wrestling long and lone
With God in prayer, behold! the lion heart
Of Luther beats with supernat'ral pulse,
And throbs for Deity, and great design.
Stung to his very soul with piercing shame
Beneath a lie to see heaven's truth expire,
And trampled Scripture gasping in the dust
Of low venality, and priestly lies,
Upon the door of Wittemberg's dark pile
He fasten'd then, with hand divinely firm,
Ninety and five of those all-fearless truths
Which shook the Popedom, and the World redeem'd
From charms infernal, to the Cross alone.
Faith, hope, and love, upon the Rock of souls
Were founded; Grace in gospel-freedom rose,
From Schools and sophistry at length escaped;
And from the fountain of Emmanuel's Blood
Both peace and pardon in conjunction flow'd,
Free, full, and glorious from the heart of God,—
Giver and gift in amnesty combined!
And yet, what eye save His, before Whose beam
Time, place, and all contingencies retire
As though they were not, in this daring act
Of Luther, heard the Reformation's pulse
Of Life and liberty begin to beat?
Or who, among the crowd that rush'd to read
In tumult wild, upon the church's gate,
Those Words, which dash'd Indulgences to air,
The silent thunder of their strength foretold
Upon thine eve, All-Hallows? Monk and priest
And Pope, and hoary-headed Falsehood, then,
Were death-struck: in those few fine truths
The germs of unexpanded glory slept,
As in the acorn future navies float.
And when at night a lonely cell was sought,
Could the brave Monk his deed of pregnant might
Have measured? In the greatness of the act,
Oh, was he conscious of th' Almighty, there?