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| THERE is a legend full of joy and pain, | |
| An old tradition told of former years, | |
| When Israel built the Temple once again | |
| And stayed his tears. | |
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| ’Twas in the chamber where the Wood Pile lay, | 5 |
| The logs wherewith the altar’s flame was fed; | |
| There hope recalled the Light of vanished day, | |
| The Light long fled. | |
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| A priest moved slowly o’er the marble floor, | |
| Sorting the fuel in the chamber stored; | 10 |
| Frail was his form;—he ministered no more | |
| Before the Lord. | |
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| Wrapt in still thought, with sad and mournful mien, | |
| Pyking his axe with oft a troubled sigh, | |
| He dreamed of glory which the House had seen | 15 |
| In days gone by; | |
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| Mused of the time when in the Holy Place | |
| God’s Presence dwelt between the Cherubim, | |
| And of the day He turned away His face, | |
| And light grew dim; | 20 |
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| When the Shechinah from that erring throng, | |
| Alas, withdrew, yet tarried in the track, | |
| As one who lingereth on the threshold long | |
| And looketh back; | |
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| Then step by step in that reluctant flight | 25 |
| Approached the shadow of the city wall, | |
| And lingered yet upon the mountain height | |
| For hoped recall. | |
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| The Temple standing, pride of Israel’s race, | |
| Hath resting there no sacred Ark of Gold; | 30 |
| God’s Glory filleth not the Holy Place | |
| As once of old. | |
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| Surely the glory of the House is o’er; | |
| Gone is the Presence, silent is the Voice;— | |
| They who remember that which is no more, | 35 |
| Can they rejoice? | |
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| To him, so musing, sudden rapture came; | |
| The axe fell from his trembling hand’s control; | |
| A fire leapt upward, and a burning flame. | |
| Woke in his soul. | 40 |
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| His eyes had seen; his soul spoke; he had gazed | |
| Upon one stone of that smooth marble plain:— | |
| Lo! from its place it surely had been raised | |
| And set again. | |
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| Into his heart there flashed prophetic light; | 45 |
| With sudden force the secret was revealed; | |
| What but one treasure, sacred in his sight, | |
| Lay there concealed? | |
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| As one of Heaven bid who dare not wait, | |
| With step grown firm as with the strength of youth, | 50 |
| He hastened to his comrade to relate | |
| The wondrous truth. | |
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| With hand uplifted, and a light sublime | |
| In eyes that full of some new wonder shone, | |
| He seemed a holy seer of olden time | 55 |
| To look upon. | |
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| Yet from his parted lips no message came; | |
| In silence reached he his immortal goal; | |
| And from its dwelling in the earthly frame | |
| Went forth his soul. | 60 |
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| Soon o’er the house flew, murmuring, strange reports, | |
| And men and women trembled at the sound, | |
| And priests came swiftly from the sacred courts, | |
| And thronged around. | |
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| And all these came from all their paths away, | 65 |
| In hurried gathering which none gainsaid, | |
| And stood in utter silence where he lay, | |
| The priestly dead. | |
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| Lo! in the hush the spirit, as it passed | |
| Beyond the still form and the peaceful brow, | 70 |
| Seemed to speak audibly: “O Lord, at last! | |
| I see Thee now. | |
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| “Mine eyes have seen this day my life’s fair dream, | |
| In this my death have seen that dream fulfilled— | |
| The longing of my heart, the wish supreme | 75 |
| That grief instilled. | |
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| “I said, God’s Ark is captive far away, | |
| So wept I, Ichabod, for glory fled, | |
| And mourned because the brightness of the day | |
| Was quenched and dead. | 80 |
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| “Yet, verily, if in a far-off land | |
| The Ark of God in exile dwelleth still, | |
| Yea, even so ’tis with the pure of hand | |
| Who do His will. | |
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| “Know then, ye priests and Levites, Israel all, | 85 |
| Hid in its place the Ark of God doth lie, | |
| His presence hath not gone beyond recall, | |
| But bideth nigh. | |
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| “Haste, brethren, let the gates asunder burst; | |
| Regain the Ark, the Covenant hold fast; | 90 |
| And by the glorious Second House, the First | |
| Shall be surpassed! | |
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| “Behold, thou comest as the dawn of day! | |
| Shechinah! changeless, to illume the night! | |
| O Thou, Who art a lamp upon the way, | 95 |
| Who art the light!” | |
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| So sang his soul, with life’s full radiance crowned; | |
| So dawned again the shining of God’s face; | |
| For each heart knew the Ark could yet be found | |
| Within its place. | 100 |
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