Page:Redemption, a Poem.djvu/193

 REDEMPTION. 187

The leper, freed from tainting spots, grew clean ;

Tormentings ceased ; lunatics, sound of mind,

To loud hosannas senseless gibb'rings changed.

Chorozain beheld his mighty works,

Bethsaida saw, but they repented not ;

Capharnaum exalted was to heav'n,

But deeper than Gomorrha sank to hell ;

For there, his wonders chief he gracious wrought,

Before it long the Deity unveil'd,

Yet no soul saving penance crown'd his works,

No sackcloth, dust, nor ashes, on them threw,

Their penitential sorrow to proclaim.

Hard by where Jordan pours its troubled stream Into Tiberia's sea, there lifts a mount Its stately head, and wide o'erlooks the plain ; Nameless, until the heav'nly Shepherd led His following flock, to its imbower'd side; Since then, the mountain of Beatitudes Is call'd. This, now the Father of the poor, And Teacher of th' Evangelists approach'd. Along its grassy slope, gently declined, Shaded with elms, with clust'ring ivy crown'd, The eager multitudes around him crowd. He sat ; when streams of heav'nly wisdom, free, From his bless'd lips, in charming cadence flow'd :

" Bless'd are the poor, for theirs the kingdom is ; Blessed the meek, for they the earth shall have ; Blessed, that mourn, for God shall comfort them ; Bless'd, who for justice long, they shall be fill'd; Blessed the merciful, they mercy find ; Blessed the clean of heart, they God shall see; Blessed the peacemakers, his children call'd ;

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