Classic Poem

No — farther back than saintly Paul,
Our blood-bought charter goes;
By Christ's omnific sovereign call,
The Church's fabric rose.

Before the city of the hills,
Advanced her lordly claim;
Or men of guile with stubborn wills,
Gave Heresy a name:

With buttress firm upon the Rock,
In towering pride alone,
She braved of earth and hell the shock,
With Christ her corner-stone.

" A Creature made by mortal hand! "
No — H E who framed the skies,
And counts each grain of Ocean's sand,
And gives the flower its dyes —

He placed within his blood-bought fold,
The sacred Orders three;
And from that hour we firmly hold,
Our settled Ministry.

What — sprang the Church we doubly prize,
From royal Henry's nod?
Take back the word — the Christian cries,
She owes her birth to God.

Protesting from her natal hour,
When Error reared its crest;
E PISCOPAL in NAME and POWER ,
While earth her claim confessed;

A Witness for the Truth she stood,
Unheeding shame or loss;
Her potent seal — E MMANUEL'S blood,
Her battle-cry — T HE Cross.

A ND STAND S HE WILL , till He shall come,
Who bade her portals rise,
To give His every child a home,
A Kingdom in the skies.