Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity.
“Strong in the Lord ------ we wrestle
against principalities, against powers, against the Rulers of the Darkness of this world.”
—Epistle for the Day.
Though weaponless, to man, the Church appears,
Yet, in her weakness is she mighty, still!
And civil Tyrants have confess'd their fears,
When they approach'd Her, with consummate ill,
Finding, she hath a mystery and might,
Or, secret glory, which escapes their sight.
Money, and men, with subtlety and sway
Adjusted and array'd,—with these blind worldlings move
Whate'er impediments obstruct the way
Bewilder'd dreams of wild ambition love;
But Christ's own
Body!—there, they face a foe
Who seems to strengthen on the rock of woe!
But, whence th' enduring grandeur of this spell,
This obstinate sublime of love and law,—
Is, to mere earth-gods, more than speech can tell,
A something more than State-craft ever saw!
Hence, from collision with such magic, they
Shrink and retire, like darkness from the day.
Oh! had their conscience but a creed divine,
Church of The Lord! how soon would all be clear,
And prove what myst'ries fill that Ark of Thine,
Which daunt the tyrants, when they
draw too near,
Since faith, not sight, a true perception gains
Of that high region where the heaven-King reigns.
