Page:Redemption, a Poem.djvu/199

 REDEMPTION. 193

As mystic prototypes of flesh and blood, Broken and shed, to nurture man's true life; Shadow'd at Cana, here more clear portray'd ; There water, wine, now bread strange multiplied, Shown openly to sense, to prove his pow'r, That slow of faith might feel, and own his truth, When wine to blood, and bread to saving flesh, He changed, to feed a world, through these redeem'd. Refresh' d with life sustaining food, again The Shepherd of the people, bade them go. But closer round him press the satiate throng, And with strange clamors fill the sounding shore :

" Messias' come ! the Prince of peace, our King, The King of Israel he, and Lord of all; Who with good things his people fills, with corn And wine; none empty from him go away. This truly is the Prophet, that should come ; Give praise immortal now to Israel's King."

When Jesus knew, that they by force would make Him king, he to the mountains straightway fled; Where, hid by thickets, and the shades of night, Lissom the royal Prophet shuns the crowd, And, with the favor' d Twelve, on th' other side Descends, to Galilee's ensabled shore, Where Peter's ship at easy anchor rode, Upon the bosom of the treach'rous tide. Thither the hardy mariners ascend, Upheave the anchor, free her cordage set, Give to the breeze her sails, and put to sea.

Soft breathing zephyrs play around the bark, Its flowing canvass swell, impel the keel, And urge with gentle force its seaward way.

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