"Do tongues that taste the bread and wine Speak truer after, by that sign?
"The very priest, in gown and bands, Hath lying lips and guilty hands!"
"He speaks no error," answered I; "He says the living all shall die,
"The dead all rise; and both are true; Both wholesome doctrines,--old, not new."
My friend returned, "He aims a blow To strike the sins of long ago,--
"Yet shields, the while, with studied phrase, The evil present in these days.
"Doth God in heaven impute no crime To prophets who belie their time?"
--We turned away among the tombs: The bees were in the clover-blooms;
The crickets leaped to let us pass; And God's sweet breath was on the grass.
We spelled the legends on the stones: The graves were full of martyrs' bones,--
Of bodies which the rack once brake In witness for the dear Lord's sake,--
Of ashes gathered from the pyres Of saints whose souls fled up through fires.
I heard him murmur, as we passed, "Thus won they all the crown at last;
"Which now men lose, through looking back To find it at the stake and rack:
"The rack and stake have gathered grime: God's touchstone is the passing time."
--Just then, amid some olive-sprays, Two orioles perched, and piped their lays,
Until the gold beneath their throats Shook molten in their mellow notes.
Then, pealing from the church, a psalm Rolled forth upon the outer calm.
"Both choirs," said I, "are in accord; For both give worship to the Lord."
Said he, "The tree-top song, I fear, Fled first and straightest to God's ear.
"If men bind other men in chains, Then chant, doth God accept the strains?
"Do loud-lipped hymns His ear allure?-- God hates the church that harms the poor!"
--Then rose a meeting-house in view, Of bleached and weather-beaten hue,
Where, plain of garb and pure of heart, Men kept the church and world apart,
And sat in waiting for the light That dawns upon the inner sight;
Nor did they vex the silent air With any sound of hymn or prayer;
But on their lips God's hand was pressed, And each man kissed it and was blessed.
I asked, "Is this the true church, then?" "Nay," answered he, "a sect of men:
"And sects that lock their doors in pride Shut God and half His saints outside.
"The gates of heaven, the Scriptures say, Stand open wide by night and day: