Resigning to despair his dream of joy.
Then hope, faint hope, revives-hope, that Despair May to his aid let loose the demon Frenzy,
To lead scared conscience blindfold o'er the brink
Of self-destruction's cataract of blood.
Most miserable, most incongruous wretch!
Dar'st thou to spurn thy life, the boon of God,
Yet dreadest to approach his holy place?
O dare to enter in! may be some word,
Or sweetly-chanted strain, will in thy heart
Awake a chord in unison with life.
What are thy fancied woes to his, whose fate
Is (sentence dire !) incurable disease,—
The outcast of a lazar-house, homeless,
Or with a home where eyes do scowl on him!
Yet he, even he, with feeble steps draws near,
With trembling voice joins in the song of praise.
Patient he waits the hour of his release;
He knows he has a home beyond the grave.
Or turn thee to that house with studded doors, And iron-vizor'd windows; even there The Sabbath sheds a beam of bliss, though faint; The debtor's friends (for still he has some friends) Have time to visit him; the blossoming pea, That climbs the rust-worn bars, seems fresher tinged;
And on the little turf, this day renewed,
The lark, his prison mate, quivers the wing
With more than wonted joy. See, through the bars,
That pallid face retreating from the view,
That glittering eye following, with hopeless look,
The friend of former years, now passing by
In peaceful fellowship to worship God:
With them, in days of youthful years, he roamed O'er hill and dale, o'er broomy knowe; and wist As little as the blithest of the band
Of this his lot; condemned, condemned unheard,
The party for his judge:-among the throng,
The Pharisaical hard-hearted man
He sees pass on, to join the heaven-taught prayer,
Forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors:
From unforgiving lips most impious prayer!
O happier far the victim, than the hand
That deals the legal stab! The injured man
Enjoys internal, settled calm; to him
The Sabbath bell sounds peace; he loves to meet
His fellow-sufferers, to pray and praise:
And many a prayer, as pure as e'er was breathed
In holy fanes, is sighed in prison halls.
Ah me! that clank of chains, as kneel and rise
The death-doomed row. But see, a smile illumes
The face of some; perhaps they're guiltless: Oh!
And must high-minded honesty endure
The ignominy of a felon's fate!
No, 'tis not ignominious to be wronged:
No;-conscious exultation swells their hearts,
To think the day draws nigh, when in the view
Of angels, and of just men perfect made,
The mark which rashness branded on their names
Shall be effaced;-when, wafted on life's storm,
Their souls shall reach the Sabbath of the skies ;-
As birds, from bleak Norwegia's wintry coast
Blown out to sea, strive to regain the shore,
But, vainly striving, yield them to the blast,-
Swept o'er the deep to ALBION's genial isle,
Amazed they light amid the bloomy sprays
Of some green vale, there to enjoy new loves,
And join in harmony unheard before.
The land is groaning 'neath the guilt of blood
Spilt wantonly: for every death-doomed man,
Who, in his boyhood, has been left untaught
That Wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness,
And all her paths are peace, unjustly dies.
But ah! how many are thus left untaught,—
How many would be left, but for the band
United to keep holy to the Lord
A portion of His day, by teaching those
Whom Jesus loved with forth-stretched hand to
bless!
Behold yon motley train, by two and two,
Each with a Bible 'neath its little arm,
Approach well-pleased, as if they went to play,
The dome where simple lore is learnt unbought :
And mark the father 'mid the sideway throng;
Well do I know him by his glistening eye,
That follows steadfastly one of the line.
A dark seafaring man he looks to be;
And much it glads his boding heart to think,
That when once more he sails the valleyed deep,
His child shall still receive Instruction's boon.
Buthark, a noise, a cry, a gleam of swords!-
Resistance is in vain,-he's borne away,
Nor is allowed to clasp his weeping child.
My innocent, so helpless, yet so gay! How could I bear to be thus rudely torn From thee;-to see thee lift thy little arm, And impotently strike the ruffian man,— To hear thee bid him chidingly-begone!
O ye who live at home, and kiss each eve
Your sleeping infants ere you go to rest,
And, 'wakened by their call, lift up your eyes
Upon their morning smile,-think, think of those
Who, torn away without one farewell word
To wife, or children, sigh the day of life
In banishment from all that's dear to man ;-
O raise your voices in one general peal
Remonstrant, for the opprest.
And ye, who sit Month after month devising impost-laws,
Give some small portion of your midnight vigils, To mitigate, if not remove the wrong.
Relentless Justice! with fate-furrowed brow! Wherefore to various crimes of various guilt, One penalty, the most severe, allot? Why, palled in state, and mitred with a wreath Of nightshade, dost thou sit portentously, Beneath a cloudy canopy of sighs,
Of fears, of trembling hopes, of boding doubts? Death's dart thy mace!-Why are the laws of God, Statutes promulged in characters of fire,*
Despised in deep concerns, where heavenly guid
Is most required? The murderer let him die,
And him who lifts his arm against his parent,
His country,-or his voice against his God.
Let crimes less heinous dooms less dreadful meet
Than loss of life! so said the law divine,
That law beneficent, which mildly stretched,
*"And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the Mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.' -Exod. xix. 16.
To men forgotten and forlorn, the hand
Of restitution: yes, the trumpet's voice
The Sabbath of the jubilee* announced:
The freedom-freighted blast, through all the land
At once, in every city, echoing rings,
From Lebanon to Carmel's woody cliffs,
So loud, that far within the desert's verge
The couching lion starts, and glares around.
Free is the bondman now, each one returns
To his inheritance: the man grown old,
In servitude far from his native fields,
Hastes joyous on his way: no hills are steep,
Smooth is each rugged path; his little ones
Sport as they go, while oft the mother chides
The lingering step, lured by the way-side flowers :
At length the hill, from which a farewell look,
And still another parting look, he cast
On his paternal vale, appears in view:
The summit gained, throbs hard his heart with joy
And sorrow blent, to see that vale once more:
Instant his eager eye darts to the roof
Where first he saw the light: his youngest born He lifts, and, pointing to the much-loved spot, Says, "There thy fathers lived, and there they sleep."
"And thou shalt number seven Sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family."-Lev. xxv. 8, 9, 10.
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