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| FOUR lamps were burning o’er two mighty graves, | |
| Godfrey’s and Baldwin’s,—Salem’s Christian king; | |
| And holy light glanced from Helena’s naves, | |
| Fed with the incense which the pilgrim brings,— | |
| While through the panelled roof the cedar flings | 5 |
| Its sainted arms o’er choir and roof and dome, | |
| And every porphyry-pillared cloister rings | |
| To every kneeler there its “welcome home,” | |
| As every lip breathes out, “O Lord, thy kingdom come.” | |
| |
| A mosque was garnished with its crescent moons, | 10 |
| And a clear voice called Mussulmans to prayer. | |
| There were the splendors of Judæa’s thrones, | |
| There were the trophies which its conquerors wear, | |
| All but the truth, the holy truth, was there; | |
| For there, with lip profane, the crier stood, | 15 |
| And him from the tall minaret you might hear, | |
| Singing to all whose steps had thither trod, | |
| That verse misunderstood, “There is no God but God.” | |
| |
| Hark! did the pilgrim tremble as he kneeled? | |
| And did the turbaned Turk his sins confess? | 20 |
| Those mighty hands the elements that wield, | |
| That mighty Power that knows to curse or bless, | |
| Is over all; and in whatever dress | |
| His suppliants crowd around him, He can see | |
| Their heart, in city or in wilderness, | 25 |
| And probe its core, and make its blindness flee, | |
| Owning him very God, the only Deity. | |
| |
| There was an earthquake once that rent thy fane, | |
| Proud Julian; when (against the prophecy | |
| Of Him who lived and died and rose again, | 30 |
| “That one stone on another should not lie”) | |
| Thou wouldst rebuild that Jewish masonry | |
| To mock the eternal Word. The earth below | |
| Gushed out in fire; and from the brazen sky | |
| And from the boiling seas such wrath did flow | 35 |
| As saw not Shinar’s plain nor Babel’s overthrow. | |
| |
| Another earthquake comes. Dome, roof, and wall | |
| Tremble; and headlong to the grassy bank | |
| And in the muddied stream the fragments fall, | |
| While the rent chasm spread its jaws, and drank | 40 |
| At one huge draught the sediment, which sank | |
| In Salem’s drained goblet. Mighty Power! | |
| Thou whom we all should worship, praise, and thank, | |
| Where was thy mercy in that awful hour, | |
| When hell moved from beneath, and thine own heaven did lower? | 45 |
| |
| Say, Pilate’s palaces, proud Herod’s towers, | |
| Say, gate of Bethlehem, did your arches quake? | |
| Thy pool, Bethesda, was it filled with showers? | |
| Calm Gihon, did the jar thy waters wake? | |
| Tomb of thee, Mary—Virgin—did it shake? | 50 |
| Glowed thy bought field, Aceldama, with blood? | |
| Where were the shudderings Calvary might make? | |
| Did sainted Mount Moriah send a flood | |
| To wash away the spot where once a God had stood. | |
| |
| Lost Salem of the Jews, great sepulchre | 55 |
| Of all profane and of all holy things, | |
| Where Jew and Turk and Gentile yet concur | |
| To make thee what thou art, thy history brings | |
| Thoughts mixed of joy and woe. The whole earth rings | |
| With the sad truth which He has prophesied, | 60 |
| Who would have sheltered with his holy wings | |
| Thee and thy children. You his power defied; | |
| You scourged him while he lived, and mocked him as he died! | |
| |
| There is a star in the untroubled sky, | |
| That caught the first light which its Maker made,— | 65 |
| It led the hymn of other orbs on high; | |
| ’T will shine when all the fires of heaven shall fade. | |
| Pilgrims at Salem’s porch, be that your aid! | |
| For it has kept its watch on Palestine! | |
| Look to its holy light, nor be dismayed, | 70 |
| Though broken is each consecrated shrine, | |
| Though crushed and ruined all which men have called divine. | |
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