Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/214

176 Who sins, once washed by the baptismal wave."

So spake the fierce Tertullian. But she sighed,

The infant Church! of love she felt the tide

Stream on her from her Lord's yet recent grave.

And then she smiled; and in the Catacombs,

With eye suffused but heart inspired true,

On those walls subterranean, where she hid

Her head 'mid ignominy, death, and tombs,

She her Good Shepherd's hasty image drew—

And on his shoulders, not a lamb, a kid.

MONICA'S LAST PRAYER.11