Introductory material

“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!”