Page:Redemption, a Poem.djvu/21

 REDEMPTION.

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��Where he wooed the seven-times wedded maid.

A path full oft retraced by spirits just ;

Abel the first, and Henoch subsequent,

Both happ'ly o'er it pass'd and walk'd with God.

Elias too, prophet of God, caught up

In chariot of fire, swept this starry road.

But later more illustrious it shone,

When on Thabor's heights, the great Redeemer

Stood transfigured, his raiment white as snow,

His face more glorious than the beamy sun,

Oped heaven's golden gates, and there unveil'd

The hidden glories of the blest abodes.

Upon that sacred mount Abdiel now stands,

A moment stands, to change his outward form.

Ere he descends the vale, too radiant

Else, for mortal eye to scan un dazzled.

A tunic deck'd his graceful limbs, his waist,

An azure cincture spann'd, a fillet bound

His hair, sandals his feet adorn'd, beauty

Immortal beamed in his face, and so,

Of manly port, mature of thought, pass'd on.

The fervid sun had measured half the day, And in its zenith o'er Esdrela stood, A fertile valley half, half wilderness, In Issachar, brow'd by Mount Carmel's range And Thabor, thence outspread to Baisan, which, Scythopolis is call'd; a place, desert And wild, where she of Endor had her seat Caliginous, and spirits vile consort; Here cank'ring care and melancholy reign, Here, on Gelboe, Israel's king, possess'd, Fell on his sword, self-slain and reprobate;

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