| Joseph Friedlander, comp. The Standard Book of Jewish Verse. 1917. | | | | The Kiss of God | | By John White Chadwick |
| | | WHEN the great leader’s task was done, | |
| He stood on Pisgah’s height, | |
| And saw, far off, the westering sun | |
| Drop down into the night; | |
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| Saw, too, the land in which, alas! | 5 |
| He might not hope to dwell | |
| Spread fairly out; and then—for so | |
| Talmudic legends tell—. | |
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| Jehovah touched him and he slept; | |
| And smooth the mountain sod | 10 |
| Was levelled o’er him and ’twas writ | |
| “Died by the kiss of God.” | |
| |
| The kiss of God! We talk of death | |
| In many learned ways,— | |
| We know so much,—which of them all | 15 |
| So simple in its praise | |
| |
| As this which from the oldest days | |
| Has treasured been apart, | |
| To comfort in this heel of time | |
| The mourner’s aching heart? | 20 |
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| We walk our bright or desert road | |
| And, when we reach the end, | |
| Bends o’er us with gentle face | |
| The Universal Friend. | |
| |
| Upon our lips his own are laid: | 25 |
| We do not strive or cry. | |
| The kiss of God! Upon that kiss | |
| It is not hard to die. | | | | |
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