78.
JEPHTHAH
The spirit has God for a neighbour,
And the wheels unreturning that ran
Return to the heart of the roses,
And curl in the new blossom now,
As the holiest fire that encloses
Gray flame? on the holiest brow.
So midnight with magic reposes,
And slumbers to visions bow.
For the soul of man, being free, shall pass
the gates of God, |
And_ the spirit find the Sea by the feet of
clim ? untrod,
And the flesh, a lifeless ember, in ashen fear
vrow cold,
As the lives before remember the perished
hours of gold.
[ xeunt all but JEPHTHAH.
JEPHTHAH.
Surely, my God, now I am left alone
Kneeling before Thy throne,
T may grow beautiful, even I, to see
Thy beauty fair and free.
For on the vast expanses of the wold
I hear the feet of gold,
And over all the skies I see a flame
That flickers with Thy Name.
Therefore, because Thou hast hid Thy face,
and yet
Given me not to forget
The foaming cloud that shaped itself a rose,
Whose steady passion glows
Within the secretest fortress of my heart,
Because, my God, Thou Art,
And I am chosen of Thee for this folk
To break the foreign yoke,
Therefore, Existence of Existence, hear !
Bend low ‘Thine holy ear,
And make Thyself, unseen, most terrible
To these fierce fends of hell
That torture holiest cars with false com-
plaint :
Bend down, and bid me faint
1 The flame of Chokmah—wisdom—which is
gray in colour, C/. the ITindu Ajna,
2° Microprosopus, who reacheth not so high
as Understanding.
Into the arms of night, to see Thine hosts
March past the holy ccasts,
A wall of golden weapons for the land,
And let me touch Thy hand,
And feel Thy presence very near to-night !
I sink as with delight
Through places numberless with fervid
fires
Of holiest desires
Into I know not what a.cradle, made
Of subtle-shapéed shade,
And arms most perdurable.!_ I am lost
In thought beyond all cost—
Nay, but my spirit breaks
chain
That held it down. The pain
Of death is past and I am free.
This body, dead, must lie
Till Thou come home again, O soaring
Soul.
The gates supernal roll !
Flash through them, O white-winged, white-
blossom ghost !
Ah, God! for I am lost.
[ JEPHTHAH remazis motzonless.*
[Morning dawns.
the slender
Nay, I,
Enter JARED, Soldiers, Prophet.
SOLDIERS.
Hfail, captain! We are ready now for
death,
Or victory, if shining wings are fain
To hover over dauntless hearts. Behold
Our ready bands to follow to the fray.
JEPHTHAH.
Welcome! hail ye this happy dawn as
one
That shall see freedom smile on us, and
peace,
And victory, and new hours of happiness.
1 Able to endure /o the end.
2 "The description is of a certain spiritual
exercise familiar to mystics.