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…f our warrior sires whose victor swords restore us Jephthah! SEMICHORUS II. With angels vast and calm That keep his way, With streams of holy balm, The prayers of them that pray, We go to bring him home and raise to Thee our holy psalm, Elohim ! ELEAZAR. Go ye, make ready for the happy march. [Exeunt Adulah and Maidens.
40 JEPHTHAH. _ And other dawns more deep and wise Burn awful in his holy eyes. A moment, and the fire is low Upon the black. stone of the altar, The spilt blood eagerly doth glow, And lightnings lick the light, and falter, Feeling the vast Shekinah shine Above their excellence divine. The Lord is gracious to His own, And hides with glory as a mist The sacrifice and smitten stone, And on the lips His presence kissed Burn the high vows with ample flame That He shall swear to by the Name. JEPHTHAH. Highest of Highest, most Concealed of all, Most H…
…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 fiends of hell That torture holiest ears with false complaint: Bend down, and bid me faint Into the arms of night, to see Thine hosts March past the holy coasts, A wall of golden weapons for the land, And let me touch Thy hand,
… The lamentations of these friends of mine But not my tears. For I will fit myself By solitude and fasting and much prayer For this most holy ceremony, to be A perfect, pure, accepted sacrifice. Only this sorrow—O father, father, speak ! JEPHTHAH. ADULAH. Most unblameable, we come again. I would not weep with these ; I dare not stay, Lest I weep louder than them all. Fare well, My father, O my father! I am passing Into the night. Remember me as drawn Into the night toward the golden dawn. [Exeunt Adulah and Maidens. CHORUS. Toward the mountains…
…and will die a man. CHORUS. For cowardice not pleases God, nor fear. Shall we not take up weapons? Or shall He Rather defend us with His Holy Arm, We not presuming in our arrogance To come with cunning, and defend ourselves ? ELEAZAR. Nay, but God smites with sharpness of our swords, CHORUS. The sword is made sharp in our hands, but the point He shall guide; We grasp the tough ash of the spear, but His hand is beside ; We drive in a cloud at the foe, but His chariots ride Before us to sunder the spears.
…hours Under God’s avenging breath, Better brave the horrid powers, Nor avoid the foreign death, Humbling all our pride before God’s most holy throne, abasing Every man’s strong soul, and facing All the heathen Ammon bore On the angry shore, Trusting to the mercy rare Of Jehovah, than to bare Hearts and bosoms to a friend
…h concealéd thought, And the worshipper’s eye, wrought To the stars in subtle fashion, By no magic is distraught. For our hope is in His holy Places, and our prayers ascend Fervent, and may sunder slowly The blue darkness at the end. For we know not where to send For a sword to cleanse the land, For a sharp two-edgéd brand, All our homesteads to defend. For amid the desert sand Lives an outcast of our race, Strong, immutable, and grand,
… the throne, By Beauty, Splendour, Victory, we swear, And by the strong foundations, and the Kingdom, Flower of all kingdoms, and by the holy Crown Concealed with all concealments, highest of all, We swear to be true men to thee and thine. JEPHTHAH. I thank you, people. Let the younger men Gather their swords and spears, and pass before This spear I strike into the earth, that so I see how many fight for Israel. CHORUS. The young men are girded with swords, And the spears flash on high, and each shield Gleams bright like the fury of lords Throu…
…spirit of God, most like a dove, Hovers, and lingers, and wings his flight, Spurned and rejected and lost to sight; But we desire him, a holy bird, And we turn eyes to the hollow hills ; For God is strong, and His iron word Mocks at the gods of the woods and rills. For .our God is as a fire That consumeth every one That is underneath the sun, And our uttermost desire Must abase, with rent attire, Souls and bodies to His throne, Where above the starry choir Stands the jasper, where alone Palest seraphim respire
… in the east is rekindled, The hope of the passionate world. The stars for a token of glory Flash fire in the eyes of the night, And the holy immaculate story Of Heaven is flushed into light. For the night has a whisper to wake us, And the sunset a blossom to kiss, And the silences secretly take us To the well of the water that is ; For the darkness is pregnant with being, As earth that is glad of the rain, And the eyes that are silent and seeing - Are free of the trammels of pain. Like light through the portals they bounded, Their lithe limbs …
… Hence southward toward Mahanaim. Say Unto the king of Ammon: Thus saith Jephthah : Why hast thou come with bloody hands against us? Our holy God, that bound the iron sea With pale frail limits of white sand, and said : Thus far, and not one billowy step beyond ! Saith unto thee in like commandment: Thou Who hast destroyed my people from the land So far, shalt not encroach upon their places One furlong more, lest quickly I destroy
…uded over His mysterious skies, And storm and wind had no more might at all, And death and pestilence forgotten were, And angels came to holy men that call, And gracious spirits thronged the happy air; When God was very gracious to all folk, And lifted from us the Philistian yoke, And all the iron power of Edom broke, And all the Earth was fair! Now, seeing that we are sinners, wilt not thou Relent thy hateful brow, And bend on us a forehead full of peace, And bid thine anger cease, And speak sweet words most comfortable, and lose The bitter me…
…appreciative of those glorious destinies that overrule the cruelties of fate, let me find my excuse in that love for, and faith in, “the holy spirit of man,” which itself may do so much toward the final regeneration of humanity, and the uniting of man once more with that God of whom Porphyry has written, ‘ We are but a little part of Him.”