A. B. D.
Canon Residentiary and Precentor of Truro
December 1903
Many had builded, and, the building done,
Through our adornÈd gates with din
Came Prince and Priest, with pipe and clarion
Leading the right God in.
Yet, had the perfect temple quickened then
And whispered us between our song,
"Give God the praise. To whom of living men
Shall next our thanks belong?"
Then had the few, the very few, that wist
His Atlantean labour, swerved
Their eyes to seek, and in the triumph missed,
The man that most deserved.
He only of us was incorporate
In all that fabric; stone by stone
Had built his life in her, had made his fate
And her perfection one;
Given all he had; and now—when all was given—
Far spent, within a private shade,
Heard the loud organ pealing praise to Heaven,
And learned why man is made.—
To break his strength, yet always to be brave;
To preach, and act, the Crucified ...
Sweep by, O Prince and Prelate, up the nave,
And fill it with your pride!
Better than ye what made th' old temples great,
Because he loved, he understood;
Indignant that his darling, less in state,
Should lack a martyr's blood.
She hath it now. O mason, strip away
Her scaffolding, the flower disclose!
Lay by the tools with his o'er-wearied clay—
But She shall bloom unto its Judgment Day,
His ever-living Rose!
III
C. W. S.
The Fourth Bishop of Truro
May 1912
Prince of courtesy defeated,
Heir of hope untimely cheated,
Throned awhile he sat, and, seated,
Saw his Cornish round him gather;
"Teach us how to live, good Father!"
How to die he taught us rather:
Heard the startling trumpet sound him,
Smiled upon the feast around him,
Rose, and wrapp'd his coat, and bound him
When beyond the awful surges,
Bathed in dawn on Syrian verges,
God! thy star, thy Cross emerges.
And so sing we all to it—
Crux, in coelo lux superna, Sis in carnis hac taberna Mihi pedibus lucerna: Quo vexillum dux cohortis Sistet, super flumen Mortis, Te, flammantibus in portis!
