University of Virginia Library

2258.

[Heathens in every age contend]

The coat was without seam;...they said, &c. —xix. 23, 24.

Heathens in every age contend
For forms of godliness,
And strictly charge us not to rend
Our Lord's external dress:
For Christ Himself they nothing care,
Yet unity maintain,
The seamless coat they will not tear
That they the whole may gain.
Each party calls the coat their own,
As masters of the loom,
Though neither at Geneva spun
Nor Babylonish Rome;
Their feuds and strifes which never cease,
Their fierce divisions, prove
They have not kept the bond of peace,
The unity of love.