“So men, by some dark impulse, break the cord
That bound their sires to worship and to faith;
They will not know the terrors of the Lord
Nor bow to all He saith
Of sin and judgment; no, they cannot brook
What seems a mystic saying, or a stern;
And from His Church interpreting His Book
They will not stoop to learn.
And so for solid faith they substitute
A mass of fluid thoughts, but half believed;
And plant the flowers of love, without the root
Of sacred facts received,
Of doctrines strong to heal, amend, uplift;
And finding thus no virtue in a Creed,
They welcome not the all-surpassing gift
Of God made flesh indeed.
And they whose worldly peace would feel a sting
If the Most High were thought to come so near,
May well ignore His Sacraments, that bring
All Heaven about us here.”
-From Arthur W. Jenks, D.D., Notes for Meditation on the Beatitudes of the Psalter (New York: Crothers, 1914).
The Cathedral Close 
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