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| SUNLIGHT upon Judea’s hills! | |
| And on the waves of Galilee,— | |
| On Jordan’s stream, and on the rills | |
| That feed the dead and sleeping sea! | |
| Most freshly from the greenwood springs | 5 |
| The light breeze on its scented wings; | |
| And gaily quiver in the sun | |
| The cedar tops of Lebanon! | |
| |
| A few more hours,—a change hath come! | |
| The sky is dark without a cloud! | 10 |
| The shouts of wrath and joy are dumb, | |
| And proud knees unto earth are bowed. | |
| A change is on the hill of death, | |
| The beloved watchers pant for breath, | |
| And turn with wild and maniac eyes | 15 |
| From the dark scene of sacrifice. | |
| |
| That Sacrifice!—the death of Him,— | |
| The High and ever Holy One! | |
| Well may the conscious Heaven grow dim, | |
| And blacken the beholding Sun. | 20 |
| The wonted light hath fled away, | |
| Night settles in the middle day, | |
| And earthquake from his caverned bed | |
| Is waking with a thrill of dread! | |
| |
| The dead are waking underneath! | 25 |
| Their prison door is rent away! | |
| And, ghastly with the seal of death | |
| They wander in the eye of day! | |
| The temple of the Cherubim | |
| The House of God is cold and dim; | 30 |
| A curse is on its trembling walls, | |
| Its mighty veil asunder falls! | |
| |
| Well may the cavern-depths of Earth | |
| Be shaken and her mountains nod; | |
| Well may the sheeted dead come forth | 35 |
| To gaze upon a suffering God! | |
| Well may the temple shrine grow dim, | |
| And shadows veil the Cherubim, | |
| When He, the chosen one of Heaven, | |
| A sacrifice for guilt is given! | 40 |
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| And shall the sinful heart, alone, | |
| Behold unmoved the atoning hour, | |
| When Nature trembles on her throne, | |
| And Death resigns his iron power? | |
| O, shall the heart,—whose sinfulness | 45 |
| Gave keenness to his sore distress, | |
| And added to his tears of blood,— | |
| Refuse its trembling gratitude? | |
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