CHRISTIAN AND JEW.

“O happy happy land!

Angels like rushes stand

About the wells of light.” —

“Alas, I have not eyes for this fair sight:

Hold fast my hand.” —

“As in a soft wind, they

Bend all one blessed way,

Each bowed in his own glory, star with star.” —

“I cannot see so far,

Here shadows are.” —

“White-winged the cherubim,

Yet whiter seraphim,

Glow white with intense fire of love.” —

“Mine eyes are dim:

I look in vain above,

And miss their hymn.” —

“Angels, Archangels cry

One to other ceaselessly

( I hear them sing )

One‘ Holy, Holy, Holy,’ to their King.” —

“I do not hear them, I.” —

“Joy to thee, Paradise,—

Garden and goal and nest!

Made green for wearied eyes;

Much softer than the breast

Of mother-dove clad in a rainbow's dyes.

“All precious souls are there

Most safe, elect by grace,

All tears are wiped forever from their face:

Untired in prayer

They wait and praise,

Hidden for a little space.

“Boughs of the Living Vine,

They spread in summer shine

Green leaf with leaf:

Sap of the Royal Vine, it stirs like wine

In all both less and chief.

“Sing to the Lord,

All spirits of all flesh, sing;

For He hath not abhorred

Our low estate nor scorned our offering:

Shout to our King.” —

“But Zion said:

My Lord forgetteth me.

Lo, she hath made her bed

In dust; forsaken weepeth she

Where alien rivers swell the sea.

“She laid her body as the ground,

Her tender body as the ground to those

Who passed; her harpstrings cannot sound

In a strange land; discrowned

She sits, and drunk with woes.” —

“O drunken not with wine,

Whose sins and sorrows have fulfilled the sum,—

Be not afraid, arise, be no more dumb;

Arise, shine,

For thy light is come.” —

“Can these bones live?” —

“God knows:

The prophet saw such clothed with flesh and skin

A wind blew on them and life entered in;

They shook and rose.

Hasten the time, O Lord, blot out their sin,

Let life begin.”