Page:Poems Kimball.djvu/46

Within these wails what peace! (Christ is our Peace)
What silence reigns where earthly noises cease!
Silence wherethrough we almost hear the sound
Of angels thronging all the sacred ground.

Here at the portal pause and reverent gaze:
A holy order all the place displays.
The triple length, the triple breadth and height
Proclaim one mystery to the wondering sight,
That, scaling pillar, arch, and window fair,
Seeks the vast roof to find the One God there;
Then from that lofty height in awe descends
To mark how majesty with mercy blends;
In nave and choir and transept arms stretched wide,
Behold the symbol of the Crucified;
And in the kneeling throng, in mystery,
His Body one with Him its Head on high,
Sharing His Cross to share at last His Crown,—
The Life He won for us through life laid down.

See, many-hued and glorious the beams
Of heavenly light that on the darkness streams,
Reveals the blazoned pane, and lends a glow
To recess dim and shadowed aisle below;
An ever-shifting, never-changing flood,
To touch our every sense, our every mood;
As the sweet Gospel answers every need
And on our darkness pours the light indeed!