Sacred Poetry.

THE PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA.

By the Right Rev. Reginald Heber, Lord Bishop of Calcutta.

WITH heat o'erlabour'd and the length of way
On Ethan's beach the bands of Israel lay.
'Twas silence all, the sparkling sands along,
Save where the locust trill'd her feeble song;
Or blended soft in drowsy cadence, fell
The wave's low whisper or the camel's bell.-
'Twas silence all!-the flocks for shelter fly
Where, waving light, the acacia shadows lie;
Or where, from far, the flatt'ring vapours make
The noon-tide semblance of a misty lake:
While the mute swain, in careless safety spread,
With arms enfolded, and dejected head,
Dreams o'er his wondrous call, his lineage hig!:,
And, late reveal'd, his children's destiny.—
For, not in vain, in thraldom's darkest hour,
Had sped from Amram's sons the word of pow'r ;
Nor fail'd the dreadful wand, whose god-like sway
Could lure the locust from her airy way;
With reptile war assail their proud abodes,
And mar the giant pomp of Egypt's gods.
Oh, helpless Gods! who nought avail'd to shield
From fiery rain your Zoan's favour'd field!-
Oh, helpless Gods! who saw the curdled blood
Taint the rare lotus of your ancient flood,
And fourfold night the wondering earth enchain,
While Memnon's orient harp was heard in vain !—
Such musing held the tribes, till now the west
With milder influence on their temples prest;
And that portentous cloud, which all the day
Hung its dark curtain o'er their weary way,
(A cloud by day, a friendly flame by night),
Roll'd back its misty veil, and kindled into light.—
Soft fell the eve; but ere the day was done,
Tall, waving banners streak'd the level sun,
And,wide and dark along th' horizon red,
In sandy surge the rising desert spread.

"Mark, Israel, mark!"-On that strange sight intent,
In breathless terror every eye was bent;

And busy faction's undistinguish'd hum,

And female shrieks arose," they come, they come!"
They come, they come! in scintillating show,
O'er the dark mass the brazen lances glow;
And sandy clouds in countless shapes combine,
As deepens or extends the long tumultuous line;
And fancy's keener glance ev'n now may trace
The threatening aspects of each mingl'd race!-
For many of coal-black tribe and cany spear,
The hireling guards of Misraim's throne were there,

From distant Cush they troop'd, a warrior train,
Siwah's green isle and Sennar's marly plain:
On either wing their fiery coursers check
The parch'd and sinewy sons of Amalek:
While close behind, inur'd to feast on blood,

Deck'd in Behemoth's spoils, the tall Shaugalla strode,
'Mid blazing helms and bucklers rough with gold.
Saw ye how swift the scythed-chariots roll'd?
Lo, these are they whom, lords of Afric's fates,

Old Thebes hath pour'd through all her hundred gates,
Mother of armies!-How the emeralds glow'd

Where, flush'd with power and vengeance, Pharoah rode;
And stol'd in white those brazen wheels before,

Osiris' ark his swarthy wizards bore;

And still responsive to the trumpet's cry,

The priestly sistrum murmur'd-Victory!

Why swell these shouts that rend the desert's gloom?
Whom come ye forth to combat?-warriors, whom?
These flocks and herds-this faint and weary train,
Red from the scourge and recent from the chain.
God of the poor, the poor and friendless save!
Giver and Lord of freedom, help the slave!
North, south, and west, the sandy whirlwinds fly,
The circling horns of Egypt's chivalry.

On earth's last margin throng the weeping train;

Their cloudy guide moves on-" and must we swim the main?" 'Mid the light spray their snorting camels stood,

Nor bath'd a fetlock in the nauseous flood-
He comes-their leader comes! the man of God
O'er the wide waters lifts his mighty rod,
And onward treads-The circling waves retreat,
In hoarse deep murmurs, from his holy feet;
And the chas'd surges, inly roaring, show
The hard wet sand and coral hills below.

With limbs that falter, and with hearts that swell,
Down, down they pass-a steep and slippery dell-
Around them rise, in pristine chaos hurl'd

The ancient rocks, the secrets of the world:

And flowers that blush beneath the ocean green,

And caves, the sea-calves' low roof'd haunt, are seen.
Down, safely down the narrow pass they tread ;
The beetling waters storm above their head:
While far behind retires the sinking day,

And sheds on Edom's hills its latest ray.

Yet not from Israel fled the friendly light,

Or dark to them, or cheerless came the night.

Still in their van, along that dreadful road,

Blaz'd broad and fierce the brandish'd torch of God.

Its meteor glare a tenfold lustre gave,

On the long mirror of the rosy wave,

While its blest beams a sunlike heat supply,
Warm every cheek and dance in every eye,

To them alone, for Misraim's wizard train,
Invoke for light their monster-gods in vain ;
Clouds heap'd on clouds, their struggling sight confine,
A tenfold darkness broods above their line.

Yet on they fare, by reckless vengeance led,
And range unconscious through the ocean's bed,
Till midway now, that strange and fiery form

Show'd his dread visage light'ning through the storm;
With withering splendour blasted all their might,

And brake their chariot wheels, and marr'd their coursers flight, "Fly, Misraim, fly!"-The ravenous floods they sɛe,

And, fiercer than the floods, the Deity.

Fly, Misraim, fly !"-From Edom's coral strand,
Again the prophet stretch'd his dreadful wand :-
With one wild crash the thundering waters sweep,
And all is waves a dark and lonely deep;
Yet o'er those lonely waves such murmurs past,
As mortal wailing swell'd the nightly blast:
And strange and sad the whispering breezes bore,
The groans of Egypt to Arabia's shore.

Oh! welcome came the morn, where Israel stood
In trustless wonder by th'avenging flood!
Oh! welcome came the cheerful morn, to show
The drifted wreck of Zoan's pride below;
The mangled limbs of men, the broken car,
A few sad relics of a nation's war:
Alas, how few! Then, soft as Elim's well,
The precious tears of new-born freedom fell;
And he, whose harden'd heart alike had borne
The house of bondage and th' oppressor's scorn,
The stubborn slave, by hope's new beams subdued,
In faltering accents sobb'd his gratitude-

Till kindling into warmer zeal around,

The virgin timbrel wak'd its silver sound,

And in fierce joy, no more by doubt supprest,

The struggling spirit throbb'd in Miriam's breast;
She, with bare arms, and fixing on the sky,

The dark transparence of her lucid eye,

Pour'd on the winds of heaven her wild sweet harmony,
"Where now," she sang, "the tall Egyptian spear,
"On 's sunlike shield, and Zoan's chariot, where!
"Above their ranks the whelming waters spread.
"Shout, Israel, for the Lord hath triumphed !"
And every pause between, as Miriam sang,
From tribe to tribe the martial thunder rang,
And loud and far their stormy chorus spread.-
Shout, Israel, for the Lord has triumphed!"

HYMN.

By the same.

By cool Siloam's 'shady fountain,

How sweet the lily grows! ..

How sweet the breath on yonder mountain,

Of Sharon's dewy rose!

Lo such the child whose young devotion,
The paths of peace has trod;

Whose secret soul's instinctive motion,
Tends upward to his God.

By cool Siloam's shady fountain,

The lily must decay;

The rose that blooms on yonder mountain Must shortly fade away.

A little while, the bitter morrow

Of man's maturer age

Will shake the soul with cank'ring sorrow,

And passion's stormy rage.

Oh Thou! whose every year, untainted
In changeless virtue shone,

Preserve the flowers thy grace has planted,
And keep them still thine own.

Review of Books.