| |
| CEASE, Christian, cease the word of scorn, | |
| On Israel’s name, on Judah’s race; | |
| Though lowly, humbled and forlorn, | |
| He hath no home, no resting place; | |
| Deem not the Hebrew’s soul so dead, | 5 |
| So abject, that he cannot know, | |
| Musing o’er Salem’s glory fled, | |
| The tear of shame, the pang of woe. | |
| |
| When by the streams of Babylon | |
| Our captive exiled fathers sate, | 10 |
| On high their tuneless harps were hung, | |
| They could not sing—disconsolate | |
| They mourned their lost Jerusalem, | |
| Her hallowed scenes of loveliness; | |
| Their children too can weep with them— | 15 |
| They cannot sing for heaviness. | |
| |
| O! think upon the severed wave, | |
| Obedient to the Prophet’s word; | |
| On that dread law Jehovah gave, | |
| When Sinai trembled with the Lord. | 20 |
| Forget not those, our favored sires, | |
| Led through the desert, bondage free, | |
| By noonday cloud, and midnight fires, | |
| Their guardian guide the Deity. | |
| |
| Boast ye of power, of glory won | 25 |
| By England’s warrior chivalry? | |
| Think, think, of what our sires have done, | |
| Of Gideon, David, Maccabee, | |
| When Judah trod his lofty way, | |
| Proud, fierce, and free; who then might dare, | 30 |
| Low crouching on his prostrate prey, | |
| Rouse the young lion from his lair? | |
| |
| Vaunt ye of Britain rich and great? | |
| Her beauties do ye fondly tell? | |
| Such once was Zion’s palmy state, | 35 |
| Fair were thy tents, O Israel! | |
| Her merchants were the chiefs of earth, | |
| Their vessels thronged the Eastern sea; | |
| And Salem gloried in the worth | |
| Of Ophir, Indus, Araby. | 40 |
| |
| Though changed, alas! not hers the doom, | |
| Thus ever hopelessly to pine; | |
| Our father’s pitying God shall come, | |
| And rear his loved, though wasted, vine,— | |
| Were this a fond and idle dream, | 45 |
| Our Prophet’s sacred word were vain, | |
| Jerusalem! Jerusalem! | |
| The Beautiful, shall rise again. | |
| |
| Virgin of Israel! yet once more | |
| Encircled by the choral throng, | 50 |
| Thou shalt lead forth the dance, and pour | |
| To tabret note the merry song:— | |
| Once more, once more, exultingly, | |
| From holy Ephraim’s mountainward, | |
| Shall Jacob hear the watchman’s cry, | 55 |
| “Arise, and let us seek the lord!” | |
| |
| Daughter of Zion! raise the voice! | |
| Clap the glad hand! beloved, forgiven, | |
| The fainting spirit shall rejoice, | |
| Refreshed, once more, by dews from heaven. | 60 |
| The land that held the iron rod | |
| Shall wield the shepherd’s crook, and prove | |
| (Hear it, ye Isles)—that Israel’s God | |
| Hath loved her with a father’s love! | |
| Cease, Christian, cease the word of shame | 65 |
| On Judah’s race—on Israel’s name. | |
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