The Form decreed of tree and flower,
The shape susceptible of life,
Without the infused vivific Power,
Were but a slumber or a strife.
He whom the plastic hand of God
Himself created out of earth
Remained a statue and a clod
Till spirit infused to life gave birth.
So, till that hour, the Church. In Christ
Her awful structure, nerve and bone,
Though built, and shaped, and organised,
Existed but in skeleton;
Till down on that predestined frame,
Complete through all its sacred mould,
The Pentecostal Spirit came,—
The self-same Spirit who of old
Creative o'er the waters moved.
Thenceforth the Church, made One and Whole,
Arose in Him, and lived, and loved —
His Temple she; and He her Soul.