“Thou worshipp’st at the temple's inner shrine,

God being with thee when we know it not.”

WORDSWORTH.

Though glorious, O GOD! must thy temple have been

On the day of its first dedication,

When the Cherubim's wings widely waving were seen

On high, o’er the ark's holy station;—

When even the chosen of Levi, though skill’d

To minister, standing before Thee,

Retir’d from the cloud which the temple then fill’d;—

And Thy Glory made Israel adore Thee:—

Though awfully grand was thy majesty then;—

Yet the worship thy Gospel discloses,

Less splendid in pomp to the vision of Men,

Far surpasses the ritual of Moses.

And by whom was that ritual for ever repeal’d?

But by Him, unto whom it was given

To enter that Oracle , where is reveal’d

Not the Cloud,—but the brightness of Heaven!

Who, having once enter’d, hath shown us the way,

O GOD! how to worship before Thee;

Not with shadowy forms of that earlier day,

But in Spiritand Truthto adore Thee!

This, this is the worship the Saviour made known

When She of Samaria found Him

By the Patriarch's well, sitting weary, alone,

With the stillness of evening around Him.

How sublime, yet how simple the worship he taught

To her, who enquir’d by that fountain,

If JEHOVAH at Solyma's Shrine would be sought?—

Or ador’d on Samaria's mountain?—

Woman!—believe me, the hour is near,

When He, if ye rightly would hail Him,

Will neither be worshipp’d exclusivelyhere,

Nor yet at the altar of Salem.

For GOD is a Spirit!—and they who aright

Would perform the pure worship he loveth,

In the heart's holy temple will seek with delight

That Spirit the Father approveth.

And many that Prophecy's truth can declare,

Whose bosoms have livingly known it;

Whom GOD hath instructed to worship him there,

And convinc’d that his mercy will own it.

The Temple which Solomon built to his Name

Now lives but in History's story;

Extinguish’d long since is its altar's bright flame,

And vanish’d each glimpse of its glory:—