Page:Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier (1895).djvu/468

436   Or saw the tabernacle pause,
 * Cloud-bound, by Kadesh Barnea’s wells,

While Moses graved the sacred laws,
 * And Aaron swung his golden bells.

Rock of the desert, prophet-sung!
 * How grew its shadowing pile at length,

A symbol, in the Hebrew tongue,
 * Of God’s eternal love and strength.

On lip of bard and scroll of seer,
 * From age to age went down the name,

Until the Shiloh’s promised year,
 * And Christ, the Rock of Ages, came!

The path of life we walk to-day
 * Is strange as that the Hebrews trod;

We need the shadowing rock, as they,—
 * We need, like them, the guides of God.

God send His angels, Cloud and Fire,
 * To lead us o’er the desert sand!

God give our hearts their long desire,
 * His shadow in a weary land!