Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1860-08-22
MISCELLANEOUS READING.
ICoAHUNIcATED.
TOLERATION.
BY WHO, WHOM oY WHERE

BY WHO, WHOM or WHERE.
And Abraham sat in the door of his tent,
On the beauties of sunset perchsnce he was bent,
Or perhaps he did trace in the red golden sky,
The land ne was promised to enjoy, by and bye.
Pure white his looks as they parted the air,
And marked was his brow with the burrows of care,
Many summers bad come, many winters had fed,
And scattered behind them their SHOWS as they
sped.
A figure appears la the distance sfar,
Where the shades of the dark sombre wilderness
are,
1t stoalthily moves the thick shadows among,
Which like a huge mantle Ger everything hung.
1t approaches the tent, bark its footsteps are
heard,
The sole sound in the air save the shrek Of the
bird,
That watcheth the darkness and guardsth the
night,
Till driven away by the approach Of tho light.
On staff be is leaning, the feeble old man,
Whose march from the grave seems indeed but
For grey are his hairs and half double his form,
Nigh spent Ger his head is life's roughest Storm
Father Abram arises the stranger to meet,
And departs from his doorway the traveller to
greet,
The dust of whose shoes, and whose garment all
Tell the length of the journey he's travelled and
toiled.
"Turn in beseech thee,' the Patriarch said,
As back to the tent the traveller he led,
Wash thy feet, bide the night, with the dawn OF
the day,
Thou can'st start out afresh on thy journey away.
"Not so said the stranger" but will abide,
Meath the boughs of yon tree that stands by the
Of the road l must take on the morrow's first
dawn,
Ere the dew has been brushed from the soft velvet
But at last be turned in for great he pressed,
And they sat at tho board-the host and the guest,
Then the stranger took bread, but no thanks did
hegive,
To the Parent in whom we oil move and do i've.
Which Abraham seeing, his anger wa1ed hot,
blessing, oh, stranger, why askest thou noD
Dost not worship the God who gsveth thee birth,
The maker of all things in Heaven and earth!
And thus said the stranger both modest and meek,
"Nay, know not the God Of whom thou dost
speak,
For I've made ME a God that is Away ct hand,
That proyideth me all that my wants can de-
mand."
And then Abraham's zeal did tower fame,
w hlch he neither coutrOlleu, nor eouHut uo "
tame,
For rising he drove him, to the wilderness drea1,
Who had tasted his salt and had broken his bread.
And at midnight the Lord asked Abraham, "tell,
With the stranger thou tookest, ask is it well1"
Abram told what had happened nor yet did he try,
An iota to hide from His all-seeing eye.
This punishment, Lord, the stranger did choose,
For TO worship thy name did he surely refuse,
And he idols hath made and set up in thy place,
Wherefore, Lord, have driven him out from my
face"
"Have borne" said the Lord, "with sins such as
thine,
From thy youth, through thy manhood, to ages
decline,
Yet vert thou unwilling a moment to bear,
With thy brother who with thee thy frsilty doth
share?"
And Abraham answered and said, "let thy wrath
Burn not 'gainst thy servant, for, lol sinned he
hath
Forgive him, OH Lord, oh, haste to relent,
For thou grantest mercy to those who repent"
And be went from his bed and diligent sought,
And when he had found him, he hastened and
brought
Him again meath his roof, and treated him kind
And by his rich gifts strove to soften his mind.
"For this thine offence thy seed" the Lord said,
"Shall for four hundred years in bondage be led;
But for this thy repentance they then shall de-
part,
With joy and much substance and gadnsss Of
hparto