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36
MODERN FRIENDS
The old world knelt before Saint Peter's chair—
The saint whose faith the Church as on a stone
Firm-set from storm and tempest stands upon—
Praying for the intercession of his prayer:
Or laid its aching sorrows and despair
Before the altars of Saints Paul or John,
That they might plead for absolution
With God and He forgive them and forbear.
The saint whose faith the Church as on a stone
Firm-set from storm and tempest stands upon—
Praying for the intercession of his prayer:
Or laid its aching sorrows and despair
Before the altars of Saints Paul or John,
That they might plead for absolution
With God and He forgive them and forbear.
The saint we worship nowadays, the friend
That in our bosom leans to sting and rend,—
An adder metamorphosed to a dove,—
Is he the gutters spit upon and hiss,
The red-haired traitor of the putrid kiss,
Saint Judas with his smiles and words of love.
That in our bosom leans to sting and rend,—
An adder metamorphosed to a dove,—
Is he the gutters spit upon and hiss,
The red-haired traitor of the putrid kiss,
Saint Judas with his smiles and words of love.
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