ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS
XIX. PRIMITIVE SAXON CLERGY
ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS
HOW beautiful your presence, how benign, Servants of God! who not a thought will share With the vain world; who, outwardly as bare As winter trees, yield no fallacious sign That the firm soul is clothed with fruit divine! Such Priest, when service worthy of his care Has called him forth to breathe the common air, Might seem a saintly Image from its shrine Descended:–happy are the eyes that meet The Apparition; evil thoughts are stayed 10 At his approach, and low-bowed necks entreat A benediction from his voice or hand; Whence grace, through which the heart can understand, And vows, that bind the will, in silence made.