INTRODUCTION. XX1x

The figure of a cathedral, into which Professor Longfellow has so finely cast his general conception of the “ Divina Commedia,” equally well, perhaps, even better, suits the Ephesian letter. If the expression may be allowed, that epistle is the veritable high-Gothic of sacred literature ; every line and detail carrying the eye upward, and the whole combining in one great upreach, irradiated with the rich hues of “the many-tinted wisdom of God.” Even as St. Ouen mirrors its lines in the font at the portal, the whole magnificent ideal of the Church of Christ condenses itself into the inscription round the baptismal laver —“one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism.” Every window is blazoned with its story, but in each the central figure is the same—now the Victim of the cross, now the Conqueror with his train of captives, now the King ascended and throned in light. No partition with its rigid lines sunders the band of wor- shippers. Jew and Gentile kneel side by side, every face turned toward the cross. On the very threshold the ear is greeted with a burst of choral thunder. The vast aisles throb with praise, crossed with the minor chords of penitent rehearsal, and the deep sighs of tempted souls struggling with the powers of darkness; while from the side-chapels float the words of admonition to the newly-wedded, and of homely precept for the children and servants; and over all the sweet, sad, trium- phant tumult is heard the voice of the great apostle, rising with the incense-cloud from before the altar in that wondrous prayer, never surpassed save by the intercessions of Jesus Him- self—‘‘ That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith ; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend, with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height ; and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled unto all the fulness of God.”