Gallery of sacred pictures manifold, <br />A minster rich in holy effigies, <br />And bearing on entablature and frieze <br />The hieroglyphic oracles of old. <br />Along its transept aureoled martyrs sit; <br />And the low chancel side-lights half acquaint <br />The eye with shrines of prophet, bard, and saint, <br />Their age-dimmed tablets traced in doubtful writ! <br />But only when on form and word obscure <br />Falls from above the white supernal light <br />We read the mystic characters aright, <br />And life informs the silent portraiture, <br />Until we pause at last, awe-held, before <br />The One ineffable Face, love, wonder, and adore.<br /><br />John Greenleaf Whittier<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-book-13/
