“With gates of silver and bars of gold + 

Ye have fenced my sheep from their father’s fold; + 

I have heard the dropping of their tears + 

In heaven these eighteen hundred years.” + 

“O Lord and Master, not ours the guilt, + 

We build but as our fathers built; + 

Behold thine images, how they stand, + 

Sovereign and sole, through all our land.” + 

Then Christ sought out an artisan, + 

A low-browed, stunted, haggard man, + 

And a motherless girl, whose fingers thin + 

Pushed from her faintly want and sin. + 

These set he in the midst of them, + 

And as they drew back their garment-hem, + 

For fear of defilement, “Lo, here,” said he, + 

“The images ye have made of me!” + 

James Russell Lowell + 