The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1878-07-19
Poe ic al.
Published by Request.
The Hebrews Prayer.

BY T. X. HERVEY.
A Hebrew knelt in the dying light
His eye was dim and cold,
The hairs on his brow were silver white,
And his blood was thin and old ;
He lifted his look to his latest sun,
For he knew that his pilgrimage was done
And as he saw Gods SHADOWS there,
His spirit poured itself out in prayer.
al come unto Deaths second-brth,
Beneath q stranger-air,
A pilgrim on dull cold earth,
As all my fathers were;
And men have stamped me with a curse
| feel it is not Thine;
Thy mercy, like yon sun, was made
On me as them to shine;
And therefore dare ! lift mine eye
Through that TO Thee, before die
In this great temple built by Thee,
Whose affairs are divine,
Beneath yon lamp, that ceaselessly
Lights up Thine own true shrine,
Oh take my latest sacrifice
Look down and make this sod
Holy MS that, where, long ago,
The Hebrew met his God.
l have not caused thswidow's tears,
Nor dimmed the orphans eye;
| have not stained the virgins years.
Nor Knocked the mourner's cry;
The songs of Zion in mine ears
Have ever been most sweet
And always when felt Thee near,
My shoes were off my feet
have known Thee in the whrlwind,
| have known Thee on the hill
have loved Thee in voice Of bird,
Or the music of the rill
dreamed Thee in the shadow,
saw Thee in the light,
| heard Thee in the thunder-peal
And worshpped in the night;
All beauty, while it spoke of Thee,
Still made my soul rejoice,
And my spirit bowed within itself,
To hear Thy still small voice
| have not felt myself thing
Far from Thy presence driven,
By flaming sword, or waving wing,
Shut out from Thee and Heaven;
Must ! the whirlwind reap, because
My fathers sowed the storm?
Or,sink, because another sinned
Beneath Thy red right arm?
Oh much of this we dimly sean,
And much is all unknown,
But i will not take my curse from MAX,
| turn to Thee alone
Oh bid my fainting spirit live,
And what is dark reveal,
And what is evil, oh forgive,
And what is broken heal
And cleanse my nature from above
In the deep Jordan of Thy love.
know not if the Christians heaven
Shall be the same as mine
| only ask to be forgiven,
And taken home to Thine;
] weary on a far dim strand,
Whose mansions are as tombs,
And long to find the father-land,
Where there are many homes.
Oh grant Of all yon starry thrones,
Some dim and distant star,
Where Judah's lost and scattered sons
May love Thee from afar.
Where all earth's myriad harps shall meet
In choral praise and prayer,
Shall lions harps, of old so sweet,
Alone be wanting there?
Yet place me in thy lowest seat,
Though |, as now, be there
The Christians scon, the Christians Jest,
But let me see and hear
From some dim mansion in the sky,
Thy bright ones and their melody"
The sun goes down with sudden CLEAN,
And beautiful as lovely dream,
Aud silently as mir,
The vision of Il dark-eyc girl,
With long and raven hair,
Glides in as guardian spirits glide,
And 10 is kneeling by his side,
AS If her sudden presence there
Were sent in answer TO his PRAYER
con! say they not that angels tread
Around the good mans dying bed p
His child-his sweet, and sinless child!
And as he gazed on her,
He knew his God was reconcilcd,
And this the messenger:
As sure as God had hung on high
The promise now before his eye,
Earth's purest hope thus DER him flung,
To point his heavenward faith,
And lifc's most holy feeling strung
To sing him into DEATH
And on his daughters stainless breast
The dying Hebrew sought his rest.
*Plato calls Truth the body of God, and Light
S shadow.