The Sanctuary A Companion in Verse for the English Prayer Book. By Robert Montgomery |
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Comfortable Words.
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 | The Sanctuary |  |
293
Comfortable Words.
“Hear what comfortable words our Saviour Christ saith.”
Rubric.
The sacraments an incarnation are
By Him extended to the Church in prayer
With Whom, as members of His Body, we
Incorp'rate grow through blest eternity.
By Him extended to the Church in prayer
With Whom, as members of His Body, we
Incorp'rate grow through blest eternity.
But oh, celestial Love! round craven souls
When echo'd Sinai through dark mem'ry rolls
Her legal thunders,—all that grace can do
They need to testify their pardon true.
When echo'd Sinai through dark mem'ry rolls
Her legal thunders,—all that grace can do
They need to testify their pardon true.
So great our guilt, by sin of life and lips,
It seems to shadow in one dread eclipse
A throned Almighty, and in darkness hide
The vast atonement God Himself supplied!
It seems to shadow in one dread eclipse
A throned Almighty, and in darkness hide
The vast atonement God Himself supplied!
The lash of conscience is a fearful thing:
And Law and Reason but combine to wring
Torture and tears from those pale souls which see
The lurid flames of lost eternity.
And Law and Reason but combine to wring
Torture and tears from those pale souls which see
The lurid flames of lost eternity.
Hence must true faith beside God's altar feed
On the dread sacrifice our spirits need;
Where none are soothed and soften'd into love
Except they build on sympathy above.
On the dread sacrifice our spirits need;
Where none are soothed and soften'd into love
Except they build on sympathy above.
No shieldless warrior
in the German host
Who in the fight his cov'ring armour lost
Was e'er permitted on the forest-shrine
To place the sacrifice they call'd divine:
Who in the fight his cov'ring armour lost
Was e'er permitted on the forest-shrine
To place the sacrifice they call'd divine:
Still less can faith-less sorrow view the Lord
Although embodied in His living Word,
Till the rent clouds of blind dejection part
And hope's bright dayspring dawns within the heart.
Although embodied in His living Word,
Till the rent clouds of blind dejection part
And hope's bright dayspring dawns within the heart.
294
Sublime consoler with maternal tone,—
Hark, how the Church our griefs can own
By words of balm, whose healing magic throws
Round the sad children more than man's repose.
Hark, how the Church our griefs can own
By words of balm, whose healing magic throws
Round the sad children more than man's repose.
Bland Sentences of most benignant power
Her wisdom culls to sooth this aching hour,—
Tender and deep as that dread love which cried
“Forgive them!” and in bleeding mercy died.
Her wisdom culls to sooth this aching hour,—
Tender and deep as that dread love which cried
“Forgive them!” and in bleeding mercy died.
“Come unto Me, thou heavy-laden heart!”—
Still in those words, inviting Lord Thou art;
And heavenward penitence by prayer will find
Such truths an anchor to sustain the mind.
Still in those words, inviting Lord Thou art;
And heavenward penitence by prayer will find
Such truths an anchor to sustain the mind.
Lost in ourselves, but in Emanuel found,
Thy mercies brighten though our sins abound;
And all who crucify the flesh-born Will
Bleed for their Master on some Calv'ry still,
Thy mercies brighten though our sins abound;
And all who crucify the flesh-born Will
Bleed for their Master on some Calv'ry still,
But in that death a resurrection gain
Where heaven and holiness commence their reign;
While love and likeness more and more begin
Christ to enthrone o'er every thought within.
Where heaven and holiness commence their reign;
While love and likeness more and more begin
Christ to enthrone o'er every thought within.
O Thou Who art our being's central home,
Ark of pure rest to Whom the “perfect” come,
Where John was pillow'd let the Church repose
And feel the calm Thy “finish'd” Work bestows.
Ark of pure rest to Whom the “perfect” come,
Where John was pillow'd let the Church repose
And feel the calm Thy “finish'd” Work bestows.
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