DEATH OF THE PATRIARCH
Reading edition
[Genesis. Chap. xlix.]
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BY MRS. JULIET H. L. CAMPBELL.
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The day declined in Egypt, and the faintly fluttering breeze
Drooped, with dew-laden pinion, ’mid the dark pom’granate trees;
The purple grapes, like clustering gems, hung heavy on the vine,
Half bursting with their luscious pulp, and rich with ruddy wine,
The broad green leaves that shadowed them throughout the noontide glare,
Now, quivering, fanned their glowing rinds, and cooled the brooding air;
While hitherward, and thitherward, the date tree and the palm,
Their graceful branches, slowly swayed, majestically calm.
The day declined in Egypt, and the sun had sought the west,
Where, like a king whose destiny was done, he sunk to rest,
While palace, dome, and pyramid, gleamed with celestial fire,
And heaven’s burnished battlements, glowed like a funeral pyre.
But in the zenith of the sky, transparent clouds, and white,
Rolled hurriedly athwart the blue, their billowy zones of light,
And parting in translucent waves, as the sea was doomed to do,
A throng of white-winged angels, swept that gate of glory through.
The day declined in Egypt, and an old man looked his last
Upon evening’s fading glories, for his life was ebbing fast;
And dim, to him, the rosy earth, though beautifully bright,
And dark, to him, the western heaven, though bathed in golden light.
Yet, though his feeble sight no more might trace the forms of earth,
His kindling soul looked from its clay, prophetically forth;
Futurity’s enfolding shroud rolled heavily away,
And ages, yet to be revealed, their secrets to the day.
Nations unborn around him thronged, with all their deeds and doom,
And the Patriarch glowed with prophecy, on the confines of the tomb.
The day declined in Egypt, and the Patriarch’s sons drew nigh,
To hear their father’s parting words, receive his parting sigh.
A noble band of brothers they, the princely twelve, who came
And bowed their stately heads before that worn and weary frame.
“Draw near, my sons,” the old man said, “while I reveal to ye,
The hidden things, of old ordained, in latter days to be.
“Reuben! beginning of my strength! my first born and my flower,
The excellency of dignity, the excellency of power!
But what are lofty gifts to thee, while thy impulsive heart
Will prompt alike the generous deed, or choose the baser part!
Unstable as the waves thou art, I read thy nature well,
And dignity and power are vain, for thou shalt ne’er excel.
“Levi and Simeon, brethren ye, in wickedness and wile!
My soul abhors your cruelty, mine honor shuns your guile!
Lost and accursed shall ye be by God’s avenging wrath,
And scattered wide, like sifted chaff, upon the whirlwind’s path.
“Thou, princely Judah, nearer draw, my proud and peerless one,
Mine eyes would rest once more on thee, my lion-hearted son;
I see thy calm, majestic front, thou generous, true, and just!
In thee the children of thy sire, for aye shall place their trust.
The gathering of the nations around thy house shall be;
And until Shiloah’s coming the sceptre rests with thee!”
And thus, as round their prophet sire, the awe-struck brethren wait,
To each of all the listening twelve, he speaks, unfolding fate.
The brawny breast of Issacher, heaves heavily and high,
As years of cruel servitude arise before his eye;
Luxurious Asher’s curving lip, half wreaths into a smile,
As visions of voluptuousness, flit o’er his brain the while;
And Benjamin, exulting hears of his successful toil —
“At morn thou shalt pursue the prey, at eve devour the spoil.”
But Joseph, of the steadfast soul, triumphant over wrong,
Round thee, the best belovéd one, the choicest blessings throng.
Of the deep that lieth under, of the far spread heavens above;
Of thy home and of thy household, in thy life and in thy love,
The words wherewith he blesseth thee, o’er all prevaileth still —
Unto the utmost boundary of the everlasting hill.
The day declined in Egypt, and from fertile mound and plain,
The golden sunlight fades away—night gathers dark again.
The clouds roll their dark billows back, and through the rifts on high;
The solemn stars, in marshaled hosts, tread up the midnight sky;
While chanting, through the firmament, the errant angels come;
They lead the unfettered spirit up, in triumph to its home.