The Absolution.
“God ------ hath given power and commandment to his Ministers
to declare and pronounce to his people, being penitent, the
absolution and remission of their sins.”
—Prayer Book.
No peace exists, except where pardon reigns,
And such, mere reason never saw;
Since all which legal Conscience gets, or gains
By questions put to perfect Law,
Is but the thunder and the threat,—
“Perish! or pay thy boundless debt!”
The sternness and the symmetry of Truth
Enthroned above compliant will,
Can neither bend to Age, nor bow to Youth,
But act their awful nature still;
For, God unglorified must be
If Truth has no eternity!
That poem vast, that Parable divine,
Creation, with its gloom and glory,
Who can translate each sacramental line
Which shadows our redemption-story,—
Unless Faith's inward eye be given
To read on earth the scroll of heaven?
And, is not Providence a searchless maze,
Wherein all moral seekers find
Contrasted problems, which confound their gaze
Whose Scripture is the creedless mind,
When Cain-like
wisdom madly dares
To mock the sacrifice of prayers?
Can God forgive? And are we pardon'd men?
Behold! the question, deep and stern;
And, if absolved, by whom, and where, and when?—
Lord! in Thy Church and Creed we learn
Free pardon from atonement springs,
Which Calv'ry to contrition brings.
