Sunlight upon Judea’s hills! And on the waves of Galilee---- On Jordon’s stream and on the rills That gathered to the sleeping sea! Most freshly from the green wood springs The light breeze on its scented wings; And gaily quiver in the sun The cedar tops of Lebanon!
A few more hours----a change hath come Dark as a brooding thunder-cloud! The shouts of wrath and joy are dumb, And proud knees unto earth are bow’d: A change is on the hill of Death, The helmed watchers pant for breath, And turn with wild and maniac eyes From the dark scene of sacrifice!
That Sacrifice!----the death of Him---- The High and ever Holy One! Well may the conscious Heaven grow dim, And blacken the beholding Sun: The wonted light had fled away, Night settles on the middle day, And Earthquake from his cavern’d bed Is waking with a thrill of dread!
The dead are wakening underneath! Their prison door is rent away! And, ghastly with the seal of death, They wander in the eye of day! The temple of the Cherubim---- The House of God----is cold and dim; A curse is on its trembling walls, Its mighty veil asunder falls!
Well may the cavern-depths of Earth Be shaken, and her mountains nod; Well may the sheeted dead come forth To gaze upon a suffering God! Well may the temple-shrine grow dim, And shadows veil the Cherubim, When He, the chosen one of Heaven, A sacrifice for guilt is given!
And shall the sinful heart, alone, Behold unmoved th’ atoning hour, When Nature trembles on her throne And Death resigns his iron power? Oh, the heart---- whose sinfulness Gave keenness to His sore distress, And added to His tears of blood---- Refuse its trembling gratitude!
written by John G. Whittier
Cast in Shadow · Tue Nov 07, 2006 @ 04:11am · 0 Comments |