The Altar or, Meditations in Verse On The Great Christian Sacrifice By The Author of "The Cathedral," [i.e. Isaac Williams] |
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6.
“They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will
I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters
in a straight way.”
The gifts most gracious which descend from high
Are things that minister to sacred woe,
That we thereby may learn ourselves to know,
Bringing to view the things that had gone by.
Thus distant mountains 'neath the o'erdarken'd sky
Come near us, and distinct their shadows show,
'Neath clouds whose watery treasures drop below,
And voices from afar come floating nigh.
When summer suns grow warm on Cedron's vale,
That brook of sorrows is no longer seen,
The olives on its bank droop sere and pale.
Thus when the world spreads o'er us skies serene,
Forgotten are the thoughts of penitence,
Which from dark heavens their fruitful tears dispense.
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