The Sanctuary :: :: University of Virginia Library

When from the Past we lift that hoary pall
Which mantles time and space and scene
And in some resurrection-dream recall
The buried grandeurs that have been,—
Dead Empires quicken with historic breath
And life comes wafted from a world of death.

But what so thrills us with admiring awe
As deeds and darings, that display'd
God's heroes in the Church which martyrs saw,
When, resting on no mutual aid,
They witness'd unto blood that Creed divine
Where all pure doctrines in the Cross combine?

Thus, when for council, Rome's converted king
Summon'd the listening East and West,
In pledge of faith-born unity, to bring
A Symbol where all Churches rest,—

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Seldom has Hist'ry unto hearts unroll'd
Such touching grandeurs as we there behold!

Then, maim'd and marr'd by heathen wound
The Apostolic watchmen came,
And in one league of living virtue bound
All who adored their Master's Name,—
Ever to keep by falsehood undefiled
The Creeds which sanctify both man and child.

And can we doubt, those Priests and Prelates hoary
Enthroned amid the palace-hall,
Eclipse all gods who reign in human story
And round whose thrones adorers fall,—
And thus, unpurified by fast or prayer,
Mistake for glory what is sinful glare!

But what these mitred witnesses proclaim'd
Our sacred Mother echoes still:
By crushing Wrong unsilenced and unshamed,—
In faith she has no choosing will,
But hands unmarr'd that true Deposit down
Which consecrates alike her cross and crown.

Nor let the worshipper of godless Mind
With mocking wonder, question how
Renew'd confessions in the Church can bind
Our hearts to keep their holy vow:—
Not to inform, but to affect the Man,
Proves the deep wisdom of our Church's plan.

Hence repetition is the law of growth;
Not light, but love, souls mainly need:
And ancient Liturgies provide for both
By concord of a double Creed,—
Where each to each imparts some genial tone
Whose true distinctness makes communion known.

Confession is of creeds the vocal life;
Without it, none in Christ are saved;

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Baptised for conflict, superhuman strife
Heroic saints have nobly braved;
Nor breathes there in the Host elect on high
One spirit that will dare the Creeds deny.

Salvation's Captain! though a Prince of Peace,
Under Thy banner we are met
And, panoplied by grace, will never cease
To lift that spirit-war-cry yet—
“My love was crucified; and I must be
Lord of my will! self-crucified with Thee.”

A perfect touchstone and a probing test
The Church for souls hath thus supplied;
And searchingly by symbols now confest
The treach'rous depth of conscience tried,—
Lest haply in some vague and vast “believe”
Our suicidal hearts themselves deceive.

So in the face of earth and hell and heaven
Let saints and fiends and angels hear
A full-toned witness to our “Credo!” given,—
Which falters with no coward fear
But upward soaring with resistless flight
Enters the ears of Him Who dwells in light.

Almighty Feeder of the famish'd soul
Both Priest and Sacrifice in one,
Shed o'er Thine Altar a sublime control
Till heaven, by holiness begun,—
Inly transform the sacrificial mind
And Saints adore Thee, in themselves enshrined.

Consult Sozomen and Theodoret.

Apostles' and Nicene Creed.

Rom. x. 10.

Ephes. iii. 17.