Poems (Rice)/Confirmation
CONFIRMATION.
BEAUTIFUL, the whole is lighted, Chancel, nave, and cushioned pew; Streaming from the painted window Gold and scarlet, purple, blue; Now, the lovely beams descending, See the holy font is dyed; Every symbol light is lending, All the church is glorified.
Hark! the solemn strains are pealing Through the arches, low and high; Is it angel voices pealing From the portals of the sky? Is it incense on the altar, Burning as in days of old, Rising with our psalm, our psalter, While the spirit-views unfold?
Months and years I never weary, Pleading for the wayward, lost, Through these labyrinths so dreary, Never counting what it cost. He, the chosen and the gifted, God-commissioned pastor, stands, With his voice, his soul uplifted, For the laying on of hands.
Come and listen; see the picture; Longer how can ye rebel? Standing on the verge, the threshold, Speak, beloved, speak and tell. Now in saintly robes are bending Bishop, pastor; both unite Love beseeching and defending, Children, for the mystic rite.
Trembling forms and hands are folded, Lo! around, the chancel rail; Hearts the Saviour's love has moulded, Now received within His pale; Penitential dews distilling, Precious more than fruits of gold; Father, while our vows fullfilling May we hidden truths behold.
Sweet this contest in devotion, When in God's own house we kneel; Sweet the changes, every motion Raptures undefined reveal; Sympathy the chord has brightened, Linking all the pure in heart; All our cares, our sorrows lightened, In a measure they depart.
Angels o'er us, are they gazing? Bend they from their home above? How mysterious, amazing, Saviour, is Thy pardoning love; While we feel Thy love, Thy power, Spread o'er us Thy sheltering wing, Guard us till our dying hour; To Thy cross alone we cling.