JACOB'S DREAM

Lonely and worn by day's dull toil and heat,

Life lay before me stark, and dead, and drear;

Night had engulfed the desert, and a fear

Was on me as of slow, resistless feet

Of foes invisible, from whom retreat

Denied me respite! I knew the moment near —

Jehovah's hand uplifted, and His spear

Down-glancing through the dark my heart to meet;

And as I crouched to take the stroke that fell

Swift from the sky, a cloud of cherubim

Burst on my vision with a mighty song

That filled the wilderness, as though a bell

Chimed from afar. Then someone said: “Be strong,

Son of the Highest! Find thyself in Him!”