k sea was silent over them.
But Israel's children safely held their way,
And the Lord went before them in a cloud
Like to a pillar, and a fire by night,
Till Moses, bearing with him Joseph's bones,
Beheld, from Pisgah's top, far off, in clouds,
The land of promise--saw that blessed land,
And died in peace.

JOHN.

Oh! may the pilgrimage
Of the tired Christian, in the wilderness 200
Of life, so lead him to his home of rest!

STRANGER.

Look northward--for the sheet let down from heaven
Had "its four corners knit:" and are not these
The north, the south, the east, the west--in bonds
Of brotherhood, and faith, and charity?
Mountains and forests by the Caspian, plains
Of Scythia, and ye dwellers on the shores
Of the Black Sea, where the vast Ister hurls,
Sounding, its mass into the inner deep;
Shout, for the banners of the cross of Christ 210
Far as your dark recesses have been borne,
By Andrew and by Thomas,[147] messengers 212
Of the slain Lamb--even to the utmost bounds
Of wild and wintry Caucasus! Aloft,
In silence, high above the rack of earth,
That solitary mountain stands, nor hears
The thunder bursting at its base.

JOHN.

So stands
The Christian, calm amid the storms of life,
Heaven's sunshine on his head, and all the cares 220
And sorrows of the world beneath his feet!

STRANGER.

Yea! and the Cross shall further yet be borne,
To realms of pagan darkness and deep night!
The cymbals to the gods of fire and blood
Shall clash no more; the idol-shapes are fled;
Grim Moloch's furnace sinks in smoke, to sounds
Strange and unutterable; but that shriek!
It came from Tauris, from the altars red
Of Scythian Diana[148] terrible!
She, too, has left that altar and its blood, 230
As when her image young Orestes[149] bore
(So fable masters of the pagan harp)--
Bore in his ship o'er the black waves to Greece.
Greece! who can think of thee, thou land of song,
Of science, and of glory, and not feel
How in this world illustrious thou hast been,
If triumphs such as thine may be pronounced
Illustrious, worthy thine own Plato's fame!
Here the proud