The Sanctuary :: :: University of Virginia Library

Subdued by no majestic awe,
Reason condemns what Seraphim adore;
And, challenging celestial Law,
Sternly demands, as heathen did, of yore,—
“To mindless babes are mystic truths reveal'd
From perfect Angels by their God conceal'd?”

Water, and bread, and wine, appear
Bare elements, of weak and worthless sway;
But, Faith's own children can revere
The inward power these outward garbs array:—
Mysterious forms of many-sided Grace
Such types present to God's adopted race.

And, Sacraments themselves enclose
Such blended principles for mind, and heart,
That each to moral bias owes
Exclusive doctrines, which themselves impart:
Duties, and bonds, and admonitions deep,
Memorials, hopes, and thoughts which make us weep,

All, all, to Sacraments pertain:—
But chief, as tokens of The God unseen,
These Rites assume their awful reign;
And, in the Church have most divinely been
An open witness of that secret Act
Whereby the Trinity our souls attract.

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For grace, in essence, lies conceal'd,
Which neither sense, nor carnal mind can view;
But, God an index hath reveal'd
Of what His sacramental Law will do,
Under a type, where sealing grace is given
To fit the spirit for its future heaven.

And Thou, of second Birth the sign,
Baptismal Font! whose consecrated wave
Sprinkles the brow with dew divine,
And bids it beam with light beyond the grave,—
Thee may we rev'rence, when Devotion's hour
From heaven derives the mystery of thy power.

Soul of an infant! passive Thing,
In thy young depths can no repulsion lurk,
Nor can our worshipp'd Reason bring
Man's aiding will, to blend with God's own work;
And thus, thy second Birth we justly call
Pure Act divine, where Grace does all in all.

Vital, though viewless, is the germ
Baptismally by Christ implanted there;
Waiting, perchance, time's destined term,
When, quicken'd up by penitence and prayer,
God's hidden Seed will gloriously arise
And flourish toward its unforgotten skies!

By nameless laws, to man unknown,
Water and word may with the Spirit blend,
And what, as magic, men disown,
Eternal Wisdom may in secret send,—
Ruling the soul with Heaven's attractive sway,
Till “deadly sin” shall grieve that power away.

Coeval, thus, with conscious thought
The Church's heaven-born education is;
By faith, far more than science, fraught,—
The babe she fosters for angelic bliss;
And on the platform of baptismal gift
Erects the hopes which man to God uplift.

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Regen'rate by the law of Grace,—
Behold! the bulwark of our Church's creed,
In whose deep fulness Love can trace
What more than satisfies Man's infant-need,
And, in the Prayer-Book find that perfect key
By which unlock'd our Liturgy must be.

And here, the standard, and the test
From whence true holiness is seen, and tried,—
Whether within thy votive breast
The Christ internal hath advanced, or died;
Since Vows baptismal, with a seal divine,
Gave thee to God, by sacrament, and sign.

And thus, the Pulpit finds a truth
According well with each liturgic tone;
Destined alike, in age and youth,
To keep the Church the Mother of her own,—
Where the first blessings which the God-Man gives,
Inspire the Sacrament by which she lives.

“Which things the angels desire to look into” (1 Pet. i. 12). “He revealed them unto babes” (Matt. xi. 35).

See Hooker on Sacraments.

“God ------ who didst sanctify water to the mystical washing away of Sin.” —Ministration of Infant Baptism.