A Cyclopædia of Sacred Poetical Quotations / Consisting of Choice Passages from the Sacred Poetry of All Ages and Countries, Classified and Arranged, for Facility of Reference, Under Subject Headings; Illustrated by Striking Passages from Scripture, and Forming Altogether a Complete Book of Devotional Poetry.

by Unknown

SPIRIT.

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.—Luke, xi. 13.

The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things.—John, xiv. 26.

And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.

And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.—Acts, ii. 2, 3, 4.

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us.—Romans, viii. 26.

Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.—I. Corinthians, vi. 19.

Every spirit as it is most pure,

And hath in it the more of heavenly light,

So it the fairer body doth procure

To habit in, and is more fairly dight

With cheerful grace, and amiable sight;

For of the soul the body form doth take,

For soul is form, and doth the body make.

Spenser.

Darkness profound

Covered the abyss; but on the watery calm

His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread,

And vital virtue infused, and vital warmth,

Throughout the fluid mass.

Milton.

Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth,

Unseen, both when we sleep and when we wake.

Milton.

Immortal honour, endless fame

Attend the Almighty Father’s name;

The Saviour Son be glorified,

Who for lost man’s redemption died;

And equal adoration be,

Eternal Paraclete! to Thee.

Dryden.

That He, The Third

In the Eternal Essence, to the prayer

Sincere should come, should come as soon as asked,

Proceeding from the Father and the Son,

To give Faith and Repentance, such as God

Accepts.

Pollok.

Our God is a Spirit, and they who, aright,

Would perform the pure worship He loveth,

In the heart’s holy temple will seek with delight,

That spirit the Father approveth.

Bernard Barton.

Will He again in flames of glory

From His celestial hill unfold

His Spirit, to confirm the story

Of the inspired Twelve of old?

Else, when the light so brightly glowing,

Each dark cloud fringing with its flame,

Like snow-white mantle lightly flowing

Around the Ethiop’s sable frame?

Forth from the open doors of Heaven,

The radiance over all is shed;

A splendour to the earth is given,

Like glory round a saintly head!

The valleys all, the mountain spires,

The world and all therein, to-night

Are bathed in the celestial fire,

As once the Twelve were crowned with light!

To-morrow is the celebration

Of the out-flowing Spirit’s might,

And all the earth, in preparation,

Is consecrated in this light!

And, like yon golden candles burning

Around the glorious evening skies,

The Spirit’s holy fire returning,

From every Christian heart shall rise!

Gostick, from the German of Freiligrath.

’Tis a solemn place:

For this dark purple loam, wherein I lie,

And this green mould, the mother of bright flowers,

Was bone and sinew once, now decomposed;

Perhaps has lived, breathed, walked, as proud as we,

And animate with all the faculties,

And finer senses of the human soul!

And now what are they? To their elements

Each has returned, dust crumbled back to dust,

The spirit gone to God.

William Thompson Bacon.

When the Spirit of our God

Came down, His flock to find,

A voice from Heaven was heard abroad—

A rushing, mighty wind.

Nor doth the outward ear alone

At that high warning start;

Conscience gives back th’ appalling tone;

’Tis echoed in the heart.

Keble.

If yet the Holy Spirit deigns to dwell

In earthly domes, ’tis not in those defiled

With pride, with fraud, with rapine, or with lust;

’Midst the rough foliage of the thorny brake,

The clustering grape not blushes, and the fig

Decks not the prickly thistle’s barren stalk;

Even thus shall all be measured by their fruits.

Charles Jenner.

On your souls

The Spirit of God shall dart with inward ray,

And heavenly light in fullest streams be poured.

Then shall ye to remotest peoples, Jew

Or Gentile, bear Christ’s name, and through the world

Proclaim forgiveness of repented sins.

Thomas Hughes.

The Spirit of God

From Heaven descending, dwells in domes of clay;

In mode far passing human thought, He guides,

Impels, instructs: intense pursuit of good

And cautious flight of evil He suggests,

But in such gentle murmurs, that to know

His heavenly voice, we must have done His will.

John Hay.