Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/124

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��POEMS DURING CIVIL WAR AND PROTECTORATE

��Giddy and restless let them reel, Like stubble from the wind.

14 As, when an aged wood takes fire

Which on a sudden strays, The greedy flame runs higher and higher, Till all the mountains blaze;

15 So with thy whirlwind them pursue,

And with thy tempest chase;

16 l And till they 1 yield thee honour due,

Lord, fill with shame their face. 60

17 Ashamed and troubled let them be,

Troubled and shamed for ever, Ever confounded, and so die With shame, and scape it never.

18 Then shall they know that thou, whose

name

Jehovah is, alone

Art the Most High, and thou the same O'er all the earth art One.

��PSALM LXXXIV

1 How lovely are thy dwellings fair !

O Lord of Hosts, how dear The pleasant tabernacles are Where thou dost dwell so near !

2 My soul doth long and almost die

Thy courts, O Lord, to see; My heart and flesh aloud do cry, O living God, for thee.

3 There even the sparrow, freed from

wrong,

Hath found a house of rest; 10

The swallow there, to lay her young,

Hath built her brooding nest; Even by thy altars, Lord of Hosts,

They find their safe abode; And home they fly from round the coasts

Toward thee, my King, my God.

4 Happy who in thy house reside,

Where thee they ever praise !

5 Happy whose strength in thee doth

bide, And in their hearts thy ways ! 20

6 They pass through Baca's thirsty vale,

That dry and barren ground, As through a fruitful watery dale Where springs and showers abound.

7 They journey on from strength to

strength

With joy and gladsome cheer, Till all before our God at length In Sion do appear.

1 They seek thy name : Heb.

��8 Lord God of Hosts, hear now my

prayer, O Jacob's God, give ear: 30

9 Thou, God, our shield, look on the

face Of thy anointed dear.

10 For one day in thy courts to be

Is better and more blest Than in the joys of vanity

A thousand days at best. I in the temple of my God

Had rather keep a door Than dwell in tents and rich abode

With smfor evermore. 40

11 For God, the Lord, both sun and shield,

Gives grace and glory bright No good from them shall be withheld Whose ways are just and right.

12 Lord God of Hosts that reign'st on high,

That man is truly blest

Who only on thee doth rely,

And in thee only rest.

��PSALM LXXXV

1 THY land to favour graciously

Thou hast not, Lord, been slack; Thou hast from hard captivity Returned Jacob back.

2 The iniquity thou didst forgive

That wrought thy people woe,

And all their sin that did thee grieve

Hast hid where none shall know.

3 Thine anger all thou hadst removed,

And calmly didst return J0

From thy 1 fierce wrath, which we had

proved Far worse than fire to burn.

4 God of our saving health and peace,

Turn us, and us restore; Thine indignation cause to cease Toward us, and chide no more.

5 Wilt thou be angry without end,

For ever angry thus ? Wilt thou thy frowning ire extend From age to age on us ? 20

6 Wilt thou not 2 turn and hear our voice,

And thus again 2 revive, That so thy people may rejoice, By thee preserved alive ?

7 Cause us to see thy goodness, Lord ;

To us thy mercy shew;

1 Heb. : The burning heat of thy wrath. a Heb. : Turn to quicken us.

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