Page:Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier (1895).djvu/158

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126
NARRATIVE AND LEGENDARY POEMS

And as one great prayer to God ascend,
And hands of mutual charity raise
Walls of salvation and gates of praise.”

So passed the Quakers through Boston town,
Whose painful ministers sighed to see
The walls of their sheep-fold falling down,
And wolves of heresy prowling free.
But the years went on, and brought no wrong;
With milder counsels the State grew strong,
As outward Letter and inward Light
Kept the balance of truth aright.

The Puritan spirit perishing not,
To Concord’s yeomen the signal sent,
And spake in the voice of the cannon-shot
That severed the chains of a continent.
With its gentler mission of peace and goodwill
The thought of the Quaker is living still,
And the freedom of soul he prophesied
Is gospel and law where the martyrs died.

VALUATION

The old Squire said, as he stood by his gate,
And his neighbor, the Deacon, went by,
“In spite of my bank stock and real estate,
You are better off, Deacon, than I.

“We ’re both growing old, and the end ’s drawing near,
You have less of this world to resign,
But in Heaven’s appraisal your assets, I fear,
Will reckon up greater than mine.

“They say I am rich, but I’m feeling so poor,
I wish I could swap with you even:
The pounds I have lived for and laid up in store
For the shillings and pence you have given.”

“Well, Squire,” said the Deacon, with shrewd common sense,
While his eye had a twinkle of fun,
“Let your pounds take the way of my shillings and pence,
And the thing can be easily done!”

RABBI ISHMAEL

“Rabbi Ishmael Ben Elisha said, Once I entered into the Holy of Holies [as High Priest] to burn incense, when I saw Aktriel [the Divine Crown] Jah, Lord of Hosts, sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, who said unto me, ‘Ishmael, my son, bless me.’ I answered, ‘May it please Thee to make Thy compassion prevail over Thine anger; may it be revealed above Thy other attributes; mayest Thou deal with Thy children according to it, and not according to the strict measure of judgment.’ It seemed to me that He bowed His head, as though to answer Amen to my blessing.”—Talmud (Berachôth, i. f. 6 b.).

The Rabbi Ishmael, with the woe and sin
Of the world heavy upon him, entering in
The Holy of Holies, saw an awful Face
With terrible splendor filling all the place.
“O Ishmael Ben Elisha!” said a voice,
“What seekest thou? What blessing is thy choice?”
And, knowing that he stood before the Lord,
Within the shadow of the cherubim,
Wide-winged between the blinding light and him,
He bowed himself, and uttered not a word,
But in the silence of his soul was prayer:
“O Thou Eternal! I am one of all,
And nothing ask that others may not share.
Thou art almighty; we are weak and small,
And yet Thy children: let Thy mercy spare!”
Trembling, he raised his eyes, and in the place
Of the insufferable glory, lo! a face
Of more than mortal tenderness, that bent
Graciously down in token of assent,
And, smiling, vanished! With strange joy elate,
The wondering Rabbi sought the temple’s gate.
Radiant as Moses from the Mount, he stood
And cried aloud unto the multitude:
“O Israel, hear! The Lord our God is good!
Mine eyes have seen His glory and His grace;
Beyond His judgments shall His love endure;
The mercy of the All Merciful is sure!”