University of Virginia Library

By the dark mountains guarded well, and on the other side
Of Havila, for gold renowned, a land lies broad and wide.
Four-square it lies—a man at speed might travel every way,
And would not pass from end to end until the ninetieth day.
The mountains with their barriers dark upon three sides enclose
This goodly land, but on the fourth a wondrous river flows;
Between whose banks no water rolls, but rush and roar along
Rocks, stones, and sand, together mixed, with tumult loud and strong;
And higher than the houses' tops huge fragments leap and fly—
But on the holy seventh day it sleepeth quietly.
Sabbation is it therefore named, for on the Sabbath day,
From eve till eve again comes back, the river sleeps alway;
Without a sound or slightest stir that day it doth remain,
But then, the Sabbath done, returns unto its strength again—
So fierce that if in middle stream were set an adamant rock,
It would be shattered presently before the furious shock.
By night a two days' journey off its rushing heard may be,
Like thunder, like a mighty wind, or like the roaring sea.

Behind this river dwell secure the children of the race,
Which had on Israel's mountains once their quiet restingplace;
Till to the Assyrian for their sins delivered for a prey,
Who from their soil uprooted them, and planted far away.
But they, when in that foreign land awhile they had remained,
Said,—‘Let us rise and seek some place by idols unprofaned,
Where we, by sore affliction taught, at length may understand,
And keep the law we never kept while in our former land.’
This counsel taking with themselves, and caring not for foes,
And caring not for length of way, nor danger, they arose;
They rose together, and dryshod the great Euphrates passed,
And ever journeying northward reached this goodly land at last—
A goodly land, with all good things their old land knew, supplied,
And all the plagues that vexed them there, for ever turned aside:
A land of streams that fear no drought, that never fail to flow,
Of wells not fed by scanty rains, but springing from below;
Where never upon sounding wing advance the locust swarm,
To hide the noon-day sun, and bring to every green thing harm;
Where never from the desert blows the scorching fiery wind,
That breathes o'er fields of flowers, and leaves a wilderness behind:
The early and the latter rain their heavens ne'er refuse,
And what the day burns up, the night repairs with copious dews.
With their own hands they till the ground, and have of nothing lack;
The grain upon their furrows cast a hundredfold gives back,
And twice the cattle on their hills yield increase every year,
And trees that in no other land bear fruit, are laden here.
Not readier on Engedi's steeps the wounded balsam sheds
Its life's blood, and the Indian nard lifts here its spiky heads.
And gardens of delight are theirs; and what is strange elsewhere
Of costly gum or fragrant spice, is counted common there;
No snake or scorpion, fox or dog, nor any beast unclean,
Nor aught that can bring harm to man, through all the land is seen.
A little child will feed the flocks in forests far away,
Not fearing man, nor evil beast, nor demon of noon-day.
And theirs the ancient Hebrew tongue, the speech which angels love;
And their true prayers in that are made, and always heard above—
Heard too in doleful worlds below, where at their hours of prayer
The anguish intermits awhile, the hopeless misery there.
And often when a man goes forth in lonely wilds to pray,
An angel then will meet him there, and—Grace be with thee!—say;
No child before his parents' eyes is laid on funeral bier,
And none departs that has not reached his happy hundredth year;
That has not at the least beheld his children's children rise
About his knees, to glad his heart and cheer his failing eyes.
Nor is the life then torn away by rude and painful death,
But Gabriel with a gentle kiss draws out the flitting breath:
And when the soul arrives at last in Paradise, there wait
A crowd of ministering spirits there around its ruby gate;
They put the sordid grave-clothes off, in raiment pure and white
They clothe him, glistening garments spun from glorious clouds of light;
They set two crowns upon his head, of purest gold is one,
The other diadem is wrought of pearl and precious stone:
And giving myrtle in his hand, they praise him, and they say,
‘Go in and eat thy bread henceforth with gladness every day.’
The day before a child is born, the angel, that is given
To be his guide and guard through life, and lead him safe to heaven,
In spirit takes him where the Blest with light divine are fed,
Each sitting on his golden throne, his crown upon his head;
‘And these,’ he says, ‘are they who loved the law of the Most High,
And such by his eternal grace come hither when they die:
Live thou and be an heir at length through mercy of this grace,
Since thou must for thy warning know there is another place.’
The angel carries then that soul at eventide to hell,
Where the ungodly evermore in painful prison dwell.
‘These wretched once, as thou wilt soon, the breath of life did draw,
And therefore be thou wise betimes, and keep and love the law.’

And if one see his brother sin, or hear him speaking vain
Or evil words, he leaves him not unchidden to remain,
But in just anger says to him, ‘My brother, wilt thou know
That sin upon our fathers brought God's wrath and all their woe?’
And thus doth each one each exhort, in righteousness and fear,
And with true hearts the righteous Lord to honour and revere.
And them, a people honouring Him, He honours in the sight
Of all their foes, exalting them to power and glorious might.
While they fear none, the fear of them on every land is shed,
That none of all the neighbouring folks dare stir them up for dread—
Well pleased if only they by them may unassailed remain,
And princes far and near send gifts for their goodwill to gain;
And five-and-twenty kings to them appointed tribute pay,
And hands of strength upon the necks of all their foes they lay.
And when their Patriarch rideth forth for pleasure or for state,
A hundred thousand men or more on his outgoing wait;
A hundred thousand horsemen, all in glittering steel arrayed,
Whose trappings all are scarlet dyed, whose banners wide displayed.

At break of morning every day, the noblest of the land
In pomp and solemn state ride forth, a high exulting band,
As though to welcome and to greet and lead in triumph home
Some Royal Stranger, looked-for long, who now at length should come.
With some dejection on their brows at evening they return—
‘Why comes He not? why tarries He until another morn?’
But soon the shadow from their brows, the gloom has passed away;
And that rejoicing troop goes forth upon the following day—
As high of hope, in all their state, they issue forth again,
Sure that their high-raised hope will not prove evermore in vain;
That He will one day come indeed, and with a mighty hand
Will lead them back to repossess their old, their glorious land.