27.12.2010, 12:12
GERMAN AND FRENCH GOSPELS.
How do these eloquent lecturers of France,
And more uncouth expositors of lame
Teutonic Saviours, on our creeds advance,
And push, in crowds, for Messianic fame !
Some in ' great swaths ' of learning and untruth
Utter themselves, and vent, in weary tomes.
Their cruel day-dreams, without pause or ruth.
Staunch to a worse apostacy than Rome's ;
Others, in tenderer tones, our hopes decry,
And blight all careless hearts with moral death.
And, with sweet voices, summon us to die ;
But, all alike, reduce our grand old faith.
Our full-orb'd creeds, to merest nuclei,
With atmospheres of philosophic breath !
How do these eloquent lecturers of France,
And more uncouth expositors of lame
Teutonic Saviours, on our creeds advance,
And push, in crowds, for Messianic fame !
Some in ' great swaths ' of learning and untruth
Utter themselves, and vent, in weary tomes.
Their cruel day-dreams, without pause or ruth.
Staunch to a worse apostacy than Rome's ;
Others, in tenderer tones, our hopes decry,
And blight all careless hearts with moral death.
And, with sweet voices, summon us to die ;
But, all alike, reduce our grand old faith.
Our full-orb'd creeds, to merest nuclei,
With atmospheres of philosophic breath !