Classic Poem

By happy choice, within the marble base
Whereon our Lady's altar rests, there lie,
Conspicuous to the kneeling suppliant's eye,
Shell-fossils strange of lost archaic race.

O Lord our God, how wonderful to trace
In ocean's depths, on earth, in circling sky,
Thy hand life-giving to both low and high—
But most to man, crowned with thy heavenly grace.

Above the altar, in the tryptic old,
The Queen of men and angels to her breast
The Infant-God, with tenderest love, has pressed.

Here stands the priest, by faith and hope made bold;
Here, offers up the Blood of priceless worth—
How wonderful, O God, thy name in all the earth.