‘Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you?’
The Temple in Darkness
DARKNESS broods upon the temple, | |
| Glooms along the lonely aisles, | |
| Fills up all the orient window, | |
| Whence, like little children’s wiles, | |
| Shadows—purple, azure, golden— | 5 |
| Broke upon the floor in smiles. | |
| |
| From the great heart of the organ | |
| Bursts no voice of chant or psalm; | |
| All the air, by music-pulses | |
| Stirred no more, is deathly calm; | 10 |
| And no precious incense rising, | |
| Falls, like good men’s prayer, in balm. | |
| |
| Not a sound of living footstep | |
| Echoes on the marble floor; | |
| Not a sigh of stranger passing | 15 |
| Pierces through the closèd door; | |
| Quenched the light upon the altar: | |
| Where the priest stood, none stands more. | |
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| Lord, why hast Thou left Thy temple | |
| Scorned of man, disowned by Thee! | 20 |
| Rather let Thy right hand crush it, | |
| None its desolation see! | |
| List—‘He who the temple builded | |
| Doth His will there. Let it be!’ | |
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A Light in the Temple
Lo, a light within the temple! | 25 |
| Whence it cometh no man knows; | |
| Barred the doors: the night-black windows | |
| Stand apart in solemn rows, | |
| All without seems gloom eternal, | |
| Yet the glimmer comes and goes— | 30 |
| |
| As if silent-footed angels | |
| Through the dim aisles wandered fair, | |
| Only traced amid the darkness, | |
| By the glory in their hair, | |
| Till at the forsaken altar | 35 |
| They all met, and praised God there. | |
| |
| Now the light grows—fuller, clearer; | |
| Hark, the organ ’gins to sound. | |
| Faint, like broken spirit crying | |
| Unto Heaven from the ground; | 40 |
| While the chorus of the angels | |
| Mingles everywhere around. | |
| |
| See, the altar shines all radiant, | |
| Though no mortal priest there stands, | |
| And no earthly congregation | 45 |
| Worships with uplifted hands: | |
| Yet they gather, slow and saintly, | |
| In innumerable bands. | |
| |
| And the chant celestial rises | |
| Where the human prayers have ceased: | 50 |
| No tear-sacrifice is offered, | |
| For all anguish is appeased, | |
| Through its night of desolation, | |
| To His temple comes the Priest. | |
