Bishops and Priests, blessèd are ye, if deep (As yours above all offices is high) Deep in your hearts the sense of duty lie; Charged as ye are by Christ to feed and keep From wolves your portion of his chosen sheep: Labouring as ever in your Master's sight, Making your hardest task your best delight, What perfect glory ye in Heaven shall reap!-- But, in the solemn Office which ye sought And undertook premonished, if unsound 10 Your practice prove, faithless though but in thought, Bishops and Priests, think what a gulf profound Awaits you then, if they were rightly taught Who framed the Ordinance by your lives disowned! XVII PLACES OF WORSHIP As star that shines dependent upon star Is to the sky while we look up in love; As to the deep fair ships which though they move Seem fixed, to eyes that watch them from afar; As to the sandy desert fountains are, 5 With palm-groves shaded at wide intervals, Whose fruit around the sun-burnt Native falls Of roving tired or desultory war-- Such to this British Isle her christian Fanes, Each linked to each for kindred services; 10 Her Spires, her Steeple-towers with glittering vanes[284] Far-kenned, her Chapels lurking among trees, Where a few villagers on bended knees Find solace which a busy world disdains. FOOTNOTES: [284] Compare _The Excursion_, book vi. ll. 17-29 (vol. v. p. 236).--ED. XVIII PASTORAL CHARACTER A GENIAL hearth, a hospitable board, And a refined rusticity, belong[285] To the neat mansion, where, his flock among, The learned Pastor dwells, their watchful Lord.[286] Though meek and patient as a sheathèd sword; 5 Though pride's least lurking thought appear a wrong To human kind; though peace be on his tongue, Gentleness in his heart--can earth afford Such genuine state, pre-eminence so free, As when, arrayed in Christ's authority, 10 He from the pulpit lifts his awful hand; Conjures, implores, and labours all he can For re-subjecting to divine command The stubborn spirit of rebellious man? FOOTNOTES: