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| RABBI JEHOSHA used to say | |
| That God made angels every day, | |
| Perfect as Michael and the rest | |
| First brooded in creation’s nest, | |
| Whose only office was to cry | 5 |
| Hosanna! once and then to die; | |
| Or rather, with Life’s essence blent, | |
| To be led home from banishment. | |
| |
| Rabbi Jehosha had the skill | |
| To know that Heaven is in God’s will; | 10 |
| And doing that, though for a space | |
| One heart-beat long, may win a grace | |
| As full of grandeur and of glow | |
| As Princes of the Chariot know. | |
| |
| ’T were glorious, no doubt, to be | 15 |
| One of the strong-winged Hierarchy, | |
| To burn with Seraphs, or to shine | |
| With Cherubs, deathlessly divine; | |
| Yet I, perhaps, poor earthly clod, | |
| Could I forget myself in God, | 20 |
| Could I but find my nature’s clue | |
| Simply as birds and blossoms do, | |
| And but for one rapt moment know | |
| ’T is Heaven must come, not we must go; | |
| Should win my place as near the throne | 25 |
| As the pearl-angel of its zone, | |
| And God would listen mid the throng | |
| For my one breath of perfect song, | |
| That, in its simple human way, | |
| Said all the Host of Heaven could say. | 30 |
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