Poems (Rice)/Confirmation

by Maria Theresa Rice

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.