AARON.
Reading edition
I will sanctify the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar: I will sanctify also both Aaron and his sons, to minister to me in the priest’s office.—Exodus, xxix. 44.
And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son; and Aaron died there in the top of the mount; and Moses and Eleazar came down from the mount.—Numbers, xx. 28.
Aaron the saint of the Lord.—Psalm cvi. 16.
Called of God, as was Aaron.—Hebrews, v. 4.
So, with trembling hand, He hasted to unclasp the priestly robe, And cast it o’er his son, and on his head The mitre place; while, with a feeble voice, He blessed, and bade him keep his garments pure From blood of souls. But then, as Moses raised The mystic breastplate, and that dying eye Caught the last radiance of those precious stones, By whose oracular and fearful light Jehovah had so oft His will revealed Unto the chosen tribes, whom Aaron loved In all their wanderings—but whose promised land He might not look upon—he sadly laid His head upon the mountain’s turfy breast, And with one prayer, half-wrapped in stifled groans, Gave up the ghost. Mrs. Sigourney.