The South Aisle: The Creed VIII

Nor only in the holy shrine
The Faith holds forth this shield divine ;—
As with the traveller on his way,
Social or lonely, grave or gay,
The sky extends its circling bound,
The cloud-hung blue expanding round, —
Thus, wheresoe'er on earth we rove,
Its omnipresent form doth move,
Wherein the image of the skies,
And the eternal Gospel lies,
Infinity of strength and light,
And love e'en more than infinite.

It is the breath of our new birth,
It is the light of our new morn,
Whence hues upon the soul are born,
More durable than aught on earth.
When dawning life first let us in,
Into this house of grief and sin,
And Death stood by to mark his prey,—
Protectingly, our sheltering stay,
That Creed stood o'er the dangerous way—
An arch that open'd to the dome,
The ancient Church's sacred home ;
An arch which, at Death's twilight bourne,
Lets out into the heavenly morn,
And over-stretching the dread road,
Props on each side th' incumbent load,
Until the ransom'd have pass'd by,
In soberness most meet to bear the Judge's eye.

In the Baptismal Service. - In the Visitation of the Sick.