Angel children at their leisure,
Played in thousands round His tent Countless thoughts of joy and pleasure Go to His beloved sent.
There in bygone days and olden
From a wonderous harp and golden
Charmed he music spirit-haunting,
Holy, chaste and soul-enchanting;
Never with the ancient sweetness,
Never in its old completeness
Shall it sound; his dream is ended
On a willow bough suspended.
Gone that dream so fair and fleeting!
Yet behold; thou dreamst anew;
Hark a new May gives thee greeting
From afar. Dost hear it Jew?
Weep no more, although with sorrows
Bow'd e'en to the grave;
I see
Happier years and brighter morrows
Dawning, Israel, for thee!
Hear'st thou not the promise ring
Where, like doves on silvery wing,
Thronging cherubs sweetly sing,
New made songs of what shall be?
olives shall be shaken
And your citrons and your limes
Filled with fragrance. God shall waken,
Lead you as in olden times;
In the pastures by the river
Ye once more your flocks shall tend,
Ye shall live and live forever
Happy lives that know no end.
No more wandering, no more sadness;
Peace shall be your lot and still,
Hero hearts shall throb with gladness
'Neath Moriah's silent hill.
Nevermore of dread affliction
Or oppression need ye tell,
Filled with joy and benediction
In the old home ye shall dwell.
To the fatherland returning
Following the homeward path,
Ye shall find the embers burning
Still upon the ruined hearth!
"The Light in the Eyes"
The light of the eyes rejoiceth the heart-Proverbs XV, 30.
And mine heart walked after mine eyes-Job xxxi, 7.
S down the age he shambles, gaunt and gray,
With sorry gait, nor one to bid him stay,
We mark what man to brother man may do.
The shrivelled skin, the Ghetto-gotten hue,
Time's Tragedy writ large upon his face.
The old, world-weary epic of his race;
-Yet see, he lifts his head and we surprise
Some strange swift light of laughter in his eyes.
On shoulders still the burden and the smart,
While Hope fights hard to live in Jewish heart,
Yet not for him the Bitterness and Gall
Though Grief stalk with him to the Wailing Wall,
Give him a crumb of joy, and, boyish-wise,
There leaps the light of laughter to his eyes.
The crying of wild voices in the night,
The curses and the struggle and the flight,
The Bloody Hand of Spain, the Cossack's breath,
The Sacrifice at York, the Dance to Death;
As fiend hath done so fiend will still devise,
-Through all persists brave laughter-light in eyes.
His mirth, sometimes, hath ghastly hollow ring,
Elijah-like its grim, ironic fling,
The hate-engendered jest betrays its heat
Nor can the pulse forever calmly beat;
But ling'ring 'neath the fire we may surmise
Warm light of loving laughter in his eyes.
Come to the pious purlieus of his home,
Here Love hath wed with Laughter, door to dome,
The troubles that beset the tiny brood
Respective, vanish 'fore that bantering mood.
What of travail, what of self-sacrifice
If Laughter-light live long in little eyes?
From Hebron's rill the music long hath ceased,
The Temple moulders in the solemn East,
Yet from Siloa's depth men still may drink
Two draughts Israel of old quaffed from its brink
The heart-young love of life that never dies,
The limpid light of laughter in the eyes!
As down the age he shambles, grimed and gray,
With falt'ring gait, and few to bid him stay,
We mark what man hath done to man, the Jew,
The shrunken shape, the dark-begotten hue;
The burden of his snatch of sorry song,
"How long, O Lord," the plaint-"O Lord, how long?"
Yet wait!-nor woe nor wail shall e'er disguise
Some sure, soft light of laughter in his eyes.
"YES, he's a Jew"-and then you shook your head
As though the worst of all had just been said;
As though that word expressed the height of crime,
The depth of shame, the lowest moral slime.
Yet, when you use that term reproach to cast
You show your ignorance of what the past
To student eyes reveals; how Moses led
In safety through the desert them that fled
From Egypt's bondage; how he planned the laws
That after ages hailed with loud applause
To guide the race in whom no power subdued
Their loyalty to God; aye, from that brood—
That storm-tossed people, oft enslaved in chains,
Have sprung a line of men, in arms and brains
The peers of any-white, or black, or brown;
Whose deeds in camp or court e'er won renown.
When Celt, or Gaul, and Saxon chased the deer,
And slew their prey with simple bow and spear,
And dwelt in holes in hillsides, like the lairs
Of prowling beasts, and naught of fame was theirs,
The Jew in Orient lands had read the stars,
Had loved with Venus, and had fought with Mars;
Had won with voice and sword the crown of fame,
In field and forum earned an honored name.
And when the Celt and Saxon ruled the world,
And the blue smoke from peaceful chimneys curled,
Beside the generation that was new
There walked the scion of the ancient Jew.
When foes harassed and threatened Britain Great
A Jew's hand 'twas that steered the ship of State,
And when the bugle sounded war's alarm
And myriad men from factory and farm
Took up the sword to keep this Nation whole,
The names of loyal Jews were on the roll.
"Yes; he's a Jew," O pigmy of a clan.
What say you when 'tis said "Yes, he's a Man"?
Does not that statement cover all the test
That can of any mortal be expressed?
Hark you you simple-headed bigot hear
A whispered caution in your dullard ear:
Do you know that Christ, of whom you sue
Forgiveness, was a persecuted Jew?
The Jew to the Gentile
'HE priest bent angry gaze upon the Jew,
"What base ingratitude. Shame, shame that you Who love the Father, should deny His Son. Christ, Jesus, is Divine, with God is one. His coming was foretold. His glorious birth, A miracle, His gentle life on earth.
An inspiration and His body bled
For us, that through His death our souls be led
To God. He died for us. Oh, stiff-necked race,
Forever shall the glory of God's face
Christ is the Lord. Take heed. Confess Him and from all your sins be freed."
And swift the Jew replied: "Christ is the Lord!'
You forced upon the
world with rack and sword. Oh, the awful moan
Of babes and mothers, maids and men and youth Who died because they dared refuse the truth You claimed. For these things how can you atone, How ease your burdened conscience, how forget The needless misery you caused?
Although you maimed us with the scourge and flame
And tortured and reviled us 'in His name';
We reach our arms in friendliness to you
And plead for peace. We are God's children, too,
Have known the love and mercy in the Face
He turned to us, His priests and chosen race,
'Acknowledge Christ,' you say, 'and save your soul.
Confess our creed. This is the only toll
Required to enter heaven and from sin
Be freed.' 'Serve thou no other God but Me
And love your fellowmen.' This is our key
To life. We love the Father, He is One.
We need no mediator. 'Christ, the Son,'
|