| |
| THE LIFTING of mine hands accept of me | |
| As though it were pure evening sacrifice, | |
| And let my prayer be incense of sweet spice | |
| Accounted right and perfect unto Thee. | |
| And when I call Thee, hear; for day once more | 5 |
| Sinks to the hour when Israel brought of yore | |
| The evening sacrifice. | |
| |
| My words before Thee shall be savours sweet, | |
| O everlasting Rock; and all the waste | |
| Of strength and body spent in this my fast | 10 |
| Shall seem to Thee a sacrifice complete. | |
| Take mine heart’s prayer, which, these ten days within, | |
| I have prepared like offerings for sin | |
| And evening sacrifice. | |
| |
| Seek them this day that seek Thee; let them find | 15 |
| Thy mercy, sought from Thee by their lips’ fruit, | |
| Look at their throng assembled destitute; | |
| Cleanse them like silver seven times refined. | |
| Accept their prayer like one lamb, where there stand | |
| Two hundred sheep from Israel’s pasture-land | 20 |
| For evening sacrifice. | |
| |
| Count it a whole burnt offering when I call; | |
| Prevail with him that is my wrongful foe. | |
| O make my righteousness like light to glow | |
| Before the sun shall set and evening fall. | 25 |
| Each man pours out his heart in this his word, | |
| And brings his gift to offer to the Lord | |
| An evening sacrifice. | |
| |
| Jeshurun, thy people, of Thy mercy sing, | |
| Holding a goodly doctrine; bend Thine ear, | 30 |
| Open Thine eyes on them, and see, and hear | |
| How good it is to stand thus tarrying | |
| At portals of Thy pity, till Thou lift | |
| Out of the hand of him that brings his gift | |
| An evening sacrifice. | 35 |
| |
| In Thy great mercy hear and understand | |
| My words, my meditation; if I hold | |
| Grace in Thy sight, O God, Who from of old | |
| Hast been a dwelling-place, then from mine hand | |
| Take Thou the gift I bring Thee, pleading here | 40 |
| With supplication when the hour draws near | |
| For evening sacrifice. | |
| |
| God whom we have not found, whose might is whole | |
| For them, Thou madest Thine in ages gone, | |
| If man give much or little ’tis all one— | 45 |
| When he returns Thou wilt accept his soul— | |
| If but his heart be true when he shall draw | |
| Night with his offering: this is all the law | |
| Of evening sacrifice. | |
| |
| When sanctuary and altar stood of old | 50 |
| Within their border on the ancient spot, | |
| They made atonement, choosing forth by lot | |
| He-goats for offering; now, if God should hold | |
| That our transgression should our death demand, | |
| He would not take burnt offering from our hand | 55 |
| Nor evening sacrifice. | |
| |
| But supplications do Thy people speak, | |
| Seeking forgiveness with a bitter heart; | |
| Behold them standing at the siege apart, | |
| Watching, entreating Thee whose face they seek, | 60 |
| Hoping Thou wilt give respite for their debt | |
| At even—saying “I shall appease him yet | |
| With evening sacrifice.” | |
| |
| Jerusalem Thy city build again, | |
| And all her cities strengthen round about, | 65 |
| And her oppressed prisoners bring out | |
| To freedom, loosened from the binding chain, | |
| Sweet be their offering as in days of yore, | |
| And Thou wilt turn, Thou wilt accept once more | |
| Their evening sacrifice. | 70 |
| |
| All Israel’s outcasts, Judah’s scattered ones | |
| Shall yet again be gathered to Thine hand, | |
| And fed as by a shepherd in good land; | |
| And God shall sit refining Israel’s sons | |
| Like gold until their cleansing shall be wrought | 75 |
| And they shall be to Him as though they brought | |
| An evening sacrifice. | |
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