Page:The Christian Year 1887.djvu/86

 Thy tranced yet open gaze Fixed on the desert haze, As one who deep in heaven some airy pageant sees.

In outline dim and vast Their fearful shadows cast This giant forms of empires on their way To ruin: one by one They tower and they are gone, Yet in the Prophet's soul the dreams of avarice stay.

No sun or star so bright In all the world of light That they should draw to Heaven his downward eye: He hears th' Almighty's word, He sees the angel's sword, Yet low upon the earth his heart and treasure lie.

Lo! from you argent field, To him and us revealed, One gentle Star glides down, on earth to dwell. Chained as they are below Our eyes may see it glow, And as it mounts again, may track its brightness well.

To him it glared afar, A token of wild war, The banner of his Lord's victorious wrath: But close to us it gleams, Its soothing lustre streams Around our home's green walls, and on our church-way path.

We in the tents abide Which he at distance eyed Like goodly cedars by the waters spread, While seven red altar-fires Rose up in wavy spires, Where on the mount he watched his sorceries dark and dread.

He watched till morning's ray On lake and meadow lay, And willow-shaded streams that silent sweep Around the bannered lines, Where by their several signs The desert-wearied tribes in sight of Canaan sleep.