"How beautiful upon the Mountains are
The feet of him who with good tidings comes,
To publish Peace, Salvation to declare;
Who saith to Zion that her God resumes
His throne, and in the holy City reigns
Almighty! Lo, his Coming far illumes
The Hills, like the young Dawn, that ere the plains
Tinges the heights, when, out of deepest night,
The Morning Star the coldest Air constrains
With his peculiar lustre, herald bright,
Lone harbinger of Day, that spreads anon,
In universal majesty of light,
In radiance around heaven and earth upon.
He comes, second Elias sanctified
With holy hand to consecrate the One
Who only might endure such rite, and died
Of that redeeming Ordinance, decreed
Ere the Worlds were. By Patience to decide
The Strife of Old,.. to suffer and to bleed;..
His Cup who else might drink? His Baptism none
Could be baptized withal; of human seed
Or of angelic, sole-begotten Son—
Us for His Advent com'st thou to prepare,
Whom in this Orb of Hope thou hast fore run?”
Thus spake the Prophet who, in the mid-air,
By whirlwind was translated into heaven,
And dropt his mantle on the pupil Seer,
Who knew therewith his master's spirit given,
And gazed aloft in faith, the while he soared,
Borne with the steeds of fire and car of leven,
To those far gates his eyes in vain explored.
Whom thus the Baptist answered: "Seers, I stood
Beneath the Towers of Salem which the horde
Of Darkness covered, silent and subdued,
Until I heard the Watcher on the Wall,
Asked of the Night, return an answer good;
'Chariot and Horsemen hasten, and they call Aloud, and sing a song of Victory
O'er Babylon, and Salem freed from thrall.'
Again they asked-' What of the Night?' And he
Replied― The Morning cometh-and the Night
Will tarry not.' Then I arose, and me
The Archangel greeted with returning light,
The Guardian of the City, Michaël,
With words of comfort equable and right-
'Say thou, Isaiah comes, his mission well-
Performed. Soon eye to eye the Lord again
Shall Zion bring-this to the captive tell-
Let her awake in joy; for o'er the Slain
He hath made bare his righteous arm, in sight
Of all the Worlds, and hath redeemed the main !""
Joy, of these words conceived, dispelled the. Night, And in the Patriarchs' souls unveiled the morn; But chief the Prophets glowed with full delight, Strong as a god, mature as soon as born
To scotch the serpent's coil. Oh, happy lands, Where Hope ne'er hopes in vain, and Love is ne'er lovelorn!
And lo, Isaiah now amidst them stands,
Majestically eminent o'er all,
And blesses them with his thanksgiving hands.
Though they so great, he towers heroical,
Though humblest of that holiest company,
Sweet as sublime-So once looked royal Saul;
So looked, but was not what he seemed to be,
Amidst the Children of his Father's land,
The goodliest, loftier than the rest was he.
But fairer Jesse's Son whom Samuel's hand
King 'midst his Brethren hallowed and proclaimed.
So Samuel stood above the prophet band,
When the insane Tyrant at the Youth's life aimed,
But, smit at Naioth by the Spirit there,
Quelled at his feet lay naked and ashamed.
Now, as a pupil in his own School here,
Vaileth his reverential forehead low
Unto the prophet the time-hallowed Seer-
A larger College is endowèd now;
A true prophetic University;
The Jewels are made up, or nearly so;
One only they await, to whose broad eye
Shall be disclosed the Vision, that will fill
The Casket up, and seal it sacredly.
Who through a tear, like dew on Hermon's hill
Pearling a sunbeam, smiles his welcome soft?
A man of woes, and victim of all ill,
On earth-now perfected by suffering-oft
Most blessed of the Blest, wont on the tide
Of tenderness, to exalt the Soul aloft,
Tearful, though nothing sad. Thus ever glide,
On such a stream, pathetic Spirits, swollen
With sympathy, and lovingly allied
To heaven, from whose hid sources first were stolen
The flood, which swelled its volume that now blends
With the descending Deluge, where-mid rollen,
Met half, assisted half, the Mind transcends
The Ocean-chariot that convoyed it high,
And passes,-how none wholly apprehends,--
Into a region of sublimity.
So Jeremiah on a Sea of Grief
Floated his ark of pensive melody.
With bolder mien, and shown in strong relief,
Ezekiel, with a brother's strict embrace,
Greeted the grasp of that returnèd Chief;
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