SIMPLEX IN ESSENTIA.
Single in essential place,
But of sevenfold power and grace,
May the Spirit shine on us:
May the light divinely shown
For all gloom of heart atone,
And temptations perilous.
Law in symbols went before us,
Dark with threats of judgment o’er us,
Ere we saw the gospel rays:
May the spirit of the sages
Hidden in their lettered pages
Venture forth in open ways!
Law, men heard from mountain peaks;
Unto few the New Grace speaks
Softly, in a room above:
Thus the spot itself is teaching
Which are best within our reaching—
Works of law or words of love.
Flame and trumpet sounding loud
Thunder through the smoky shroud:
Sudden-flashing lightnings—those
Strike a terror to the soul;
Nourishing no sweet control
Which the Spirit’s gift bestows.
Thus the sundered
Sinai thundered,
Fixing law and guilty man.
Law most fearful
And uncheerful,
Crushing sin by rigid plan.
But the fathers long selected,
And to power divine directed
How they loose the bonds of sin!
Words refreshing, threats astounding
Through new tongues in concord sounding
Thus their miracles begin.
Showing care for them that languish,
Sparing man they spare not anguish
In pursuit of evil things.
Smiting sinners, and reminding,
Only loosing, only binding
By the power which freedom brings.
Type of Jubilee returning
Is that day (if thou art learning
Mysteries of holy time)
On the which three thousand hearing,
Came in faith, no longer fearing,
And the Church sprang up sublime.
Jubilee, for so they knew it,
Who were changed and succored through it,
Since it freely called unto it
Debts and doubts, and set them right.
May the loving kindness spoken
Unto us distressed and broken,
Give release, and as a token
Make us worthy of the light.