Page:Redemption, a Poem.djvu/258

 252 REDEMPTION.

Or who, the man born blind, restored to sight ?

I beg be just for ye are learned men ;

Too high in power and exemplary worth,

T' o'erheed these hasty words thrown out. I pass

To other things. Hear me but one word more.

For I will pass the moral of his acts,

To kind, forgiving be, and merciful,

And just; the bruised reed not break, nor quench

The smoking flax ; but ask at once, and end

What doth he here, now, at Jerusalem ?

He leads the people to observe the Pasch.

Would any foe to Israel's law, do this ?"

So spake the bold good man, Joseph the just, With many' a pause between, oft interrupt; Single, against so many pitted, firm, Unalterable, unmoved, unabash'd, Nor fear'd their anger, malice, scorn or hate. When, fierce, Matthias rose ; not he, on whom The lot fell afterwards, with Barnabas, To serve, in place of that arch traitor, who, His Lord, deicidal betray'd ; but he, Asmoneus' son, a priest of Modin, Who, vi'lent, Bacchides slew, and then fled. Dark passion limn'd his face, as thus in brief, Brief from his rage, with choler choked, he posed :

" Is 't not enough this Brawler should disturb The public peace ? but out upon it ! we Must hear, in Bethdin, sung, the miscreants praise ? My voice is seize and crucify the wretch ; And with him, all who pander to his crimes. Traitors in our midst ! Abraham ! hath Israel fall'n thus? without the nerve to slay?

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