Were tongues and weapons of His power,
Born of the Spirit's fiery shower,
Our fathers and our guides.
All thine is Clement's varied page;
And Dionysius, ruler sage,
In days of doubt and pain;
And Origen with eagle eye;
And saintly Basil's purpose high
To smite imperial heresy,
And cleanse the Altar's stain.
From thee the glorious preacher came,
With soul of zeal and lips of flame,
A court's stern martyr-guest;
And thine, O inexhaustive race!
Was Nazianzen's heaven-taught grace;
And royal-hearted Athanase,
With Paul's own mantel blessed.
RELICS OF SAINTS
By John Henry Newman
"He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; for all live
unto Him."
'The Fathers are in dust, yet live to God:"
So says the Truth; as if the motionless clay
Still held the seeds of life beneath the sod,
Smouldering and straggling till the judgment day.
