Wood-notes and Church-bells :: :: University of Virginia Library

Amidst long rushes on the river's brink
Rocked in his floating cradle Moses slept,
While round the helpless babe the waters crept,
Then as if awe-struck backward seemed to shrink;
Not all Nile's floods that destined child could sink:
Soon to the shore the heaven-led princess stept,
And found the ark, when lo! the sweet “babe wept,”
As though of life's rough waves wearied to think.
By care Divine thus rescued from the water,
Taught all the wisdom of that famous land,
He lived the princely son of Pharaoh's daughter:
For those whom God for some high purpose uses
He takes from earliest childhood by the hand,
And every helpful influence wisely chooses.

THE MIDDLE LIFE OF MOSES.

Ere Moses could the prison-doors unlock
Where Israel long in iron bondage lay,
On the green slopes beneath old Horeb grey
A lonely shepherd he must feed his flock;
There sitting in the shade of some great rock
Mark the swift eagle darting on its prey,
Or watch the forkèd lightnings fiercely play,
And listen to the awful thunder-shock.
Thus 'mid the peaceful scenes of pastoral life,
Or sterner sights of mountain solitude,
He spent long years in holy contemplation;
To brace his spirit for that arduous strife
With Israel's foes, and provocations rude
Of God's own ransomed but rebellious nation.

“THE SONG OF MOSES AND THE LAMB.”

A song of triumph burst from the safe shore
And o'er the hushed Red Sea went floating slow—
O'er glassy waves tinged with dawn's crimson glow.
The myriad foe had sunk to rise no more,
And the wild, whirling billows ceased to roar;
Nor had the shining waters aught to show
Of war-horse or of chariot whelmed below,
But sparkled in the sunrise as of yore.
So when on Faith's high shore my soul has stood
And viewed the radiant sea of love divine,
Its waters crimsoned with redeeming blood,
And drowning all those myriad sins of mine,
An echo of that song has tuned my tongue,
Which by the “sea of glass” in heaven is sung.

THE MANNA.

How richly in the desert Israel fared,
By God's own hand with food angelic fed,
Which with the dew around the camp was shed.
That other dew, brow-drenching, they were spared
In tilling thorn-cursed ground—sad burden shared
By all for Adam's sin; but ate their “bread,”
As from a table in the desert spread,
“Without their labour.” or their thought, “prepared.”
So God's salvation, the true bread from heaven,
In rich completeness is before us set,
Fresh with the Spirit's dew, and freely given:
But not without the labour of Another,
Toils, tears, and thorny crown, and bloody sweat,
Of Him who is God's Fellow and man's Brother.

THE SMITTEN ROCK.

Out of the smitten rock on Horeb grey
Bursts a white waterfall, glad signal waving,
Then glides a river down the valley, laving
The lips and limbs of myriads on its way.
For us a Rock was smitten, to allay
With living water our immortal craving,
And with its ceaseless current pure and saving,
To wash our sin-stained souls from day to day.
May I behold that stream beside me flowing,
As through the desert stray my pilgrim feet,
With pleasant flowers upon its borders growing,
And from its peaceful waves a whisper sweet;
While to the Rock once riven for me I raise
The faint beginnings of eternal praise.

THE BATTLE OF REPHIDIM.

Darkly the battle fluctuates to and fro,
While, on the mount, uplifted hands of prayer
Diffuse a halo of calm radiance there,
The “noise of war” resounding far below:
As when on some high peak, with lingering glow,
The sunset sits enthroned serene and fair,
While rolling mists obscure the lower air,
And darkling streams with voice of thunder flow.
Lord, I would climb each day prayer's shining height,
And draw with lifted hands Thy blessing down,
My sword to prosper in the strenuous fight,
My arm to strengthen for the victor's crown;
In life's stern warfare sword and arm may fail,
But backed by faith and prayer they must prevail.

MOSES ON MOUNT SINAI.

Even Moses with exceeding fear was bowed
When in the midst of lurid lightning-flashes,
And quick, reverberating thunder-crashes,
God gave His law from the tempestuous cloud;
Israel below witnessed, with spirits cowed,
The sight tremendous, while the whirlwind lashes
The mountain-peaks, and down the earthquake dashes
The toppling crags—'mid blasts of trumpet loud.
Oh! as we ponder on that scene appalling,
When God from Sinai spoke His holy law,
Like Moses on our faces humbling falling,
We feel and own our guilt with trembling awe,
But soon we hear a voice from Calvary, calling
Our eyes to see what Moses never saw.

MOSES' WISH.

Moses with longing heart the Lord besought
That he might cross and see that goodly land,
And cedared Lebanon's snow-capt summits grand,
And the rich vales with milk and honey fraught.
One passionate word turned all his prayers to nought:
Enough for him, by sin shut out, to stand
On Pisgah's topmost peak, by Jordan's strand,
Whence eyes undimm'd the far-off landscape caught.
Through anger fell the man most famed for meekness,
And the great Lawgiver himself was taught,
By losing Canaan, the Law's utter weakness;
That we might lean on Christ the “meek and lowly,”
And through His merits, not our works, be brought
To walk heaven's plains, and taste its pleasures holy.