Vox Ecclesiae, Vox Christi

Not 'neath the altar only,--yet, in sooth,
There more than elsewhere,--is the cry, "How long?"
The right sown there hath still borne fruit in wrong--
The wrong waxed fourfold. Thence, (in hate of truth)
O'er weapons blessed for carnage, to fierce youth
From evil age, the word hath hissed along:--
"Ye are the Lord's: go forth, destroy, be strong:
Christ's Church absolves ye from Christ's law of ruth."

Therefore the wine-cup at the altar is
As Christ's own blood indeed, and as the blood
Of Christ's elect, at divers seasons spilt
On the altar-stone, that to man's church, for this,
Shall prove a stone of stumbling,--whence it stood
To be rent up ere the true Church be built.