"The Church of God is now thy spouse, And thou the bridegroom art; Then let the burden of thy vows Crush down thy human heart!" In vain! This heart its grief must know, And falls beneath the self-same blow, O pitying Mother! souls of light, Then let the Paynim work his will, THE HOLY LAND. [FROM LAMARTINE.] I HAVE not felt o'er seas of sand, Nor pitched my tent at even-fall, On dust where Job of old has lain, Nor dreamed beneath its canvas wall, The dream of Jacob o'er again. One vast world-page remains unread; In thy tall cedars, Lebanon, I have not heard the nations' cries, Nor startled with my dreary tread, The waste where Memnon's empire lay. - Nor have I, from thy hallowed tide, Which Israel's mournful prophet sent! Where deep in night, the Bard of Kings Felt hands of fire direct his own, And sweep for God the conscious strings. I have not climbed to Olivet, Nor laid me where my Saviour lay, And left his trace of tears as yet By angel eyes unwept away; Nor watched at midnight's solemn time, The garden where His prayer and groan, Wrung by His sorrow and our crime, Rose to One listening ear alone. I have not kissed the rock-hewn grot, Where last His footsteps pressed the clay; Nor looked on that sad mountain head, Nor smote my sinful breast, where wide His arms to fold the world He spread, And bowed His head to bless and died! |