His spear-point downwards as the bearers pass'd, Bending beneath their burden. There was one- Only one mourner. Close behind the bier, Crumpling the pall up in her wither'd hands, Follow'd an aged woman. Her short steps Falter'd with weakness, and a broken moan Fell from her lips, thicken'd convulsively As her heart bled afresh. The pitying crowd Follow'd apart, but no one spoke to her. She had no kinsmen. She had lived alone- A widow with one son. He was her all- The only tie she had in the wide world- And he was dead. They could not comfort her.
Jesus drew near to Nain as from the gate The funeral came forth. His lips were pale With the noon's sultry heat. The beaded sweat Stood thickly on his brow, and on the worn And simple latchets of his sandals lay, Thick, the white dust of travel. He had come Since sunrise from Capernaum, staying not To wet his lips by green Bethsaida's pool, Nor wash his feet in Kishon's silver springs, Nor turn him southward upon Tabor's side To catch Gilboa's light and spicy breeze. Genesareth stood cool upon the East, Fast by the Sea of Galilee, and there The weary traveller might bide till eve; And on the alders of Bethulia's plains The grapes of Palestine hung ripe and wild;
Yet turn'd he not aside, but, gazing on, From every swelling mount he saw afar, Amid the hills, the humble spires of Nain, The place of his next errand; and the path Touch'd not Bethulia,. and a league away Upon the East lay pleasant Galilee.
Forth from the city-gate the pitying crowd Follow'd the stricken mourner. They came near The place of burial, and, with straining hands, Closer upon her breast she clasp'd the pall, And with a gasping sob, quick as a child's, And an inquiring wildness flashing through The thin gray lashes of her fever'd eyes, She came where Jesus stood beside the way. He look'd upon her, and his heart was moved. "Weep not!" he said; and as they stay'd the bier, And at his bidding laid it at his feet,
He gently drew the pall from out her grasp, And laid it back in silence from the dead. With troubled wonder the mute throng drew near, And gazed on his calm looks. A minute's space He stood and pray'd. Then, taking the cold hand, He said, "Arise!" And instantly the breast Heaved in its cerements, and a sudden flush Ran through the lines of the divided lips, And with a murmur of his mother's name, He trembled and sat upright in his shroud. And, while the mourner hung upon his neck, Jesus went calmly on his way to Nain.
THE morning broke. Light stole upon the clouds With a strange beauty. Earth received again Its garment of a thousand dyes; and leaves, And delicate blossoms, and the painted flowers, And every thing that bendeth to the dew, And stirreth with the daylight, lifted up Its beauty to the breath of that sweet morn.
All things are dark to sorrow; and the light And loveliness, and fragrant air were sad To the dejected Hagar. The moist earth Was pouring odors from its spicy pores, And the young birds were singing as if life Were a new thing to them; but oh! it came Upon her heart like discord, and she felt How cruelly it tries a broken heart,
To see a mirth in any thing it loves.
She stood at Abraham's tent. Her lips were press'd
Till the blood started; and the wandering veins
Of her transparent forehead were swell'd out,
As if her pride would burst them.
Was clear and tearless, and the light of heaven, Which made its language legible, shot back, From her long lashes, as it had been flame.
Her noble boy stood by her, with his hand
Clasp'd in her own, and his round, delicate feet, Scarce train'd to balance on the tented floor, Sandall'd for journeying. He had look'd up Into his mother's face until he caught
The spirit there, and his young heart was swelling Beneath his dimpled bosom, and his form Straighten'd up proudly in his tiny wrath, As if his light proportions would have swell'd, Had they but match'd his spirit, to the man.
Why bends the patriarch as he cometh now Upon his staff so wearily? His beard Is low upon his breast, and his high brow, So written with the converse of his God, Beareth the swollen vein of agony.
His lip is quivering, and his wonted step Of vigor is not there; and, though the morn Is passing fair and beautiful, he breathes Its freshness as it were a pestilence. Oh! man may bear with suffering: his heart Is a strong thing, and godlike, in the grasp Of pain that wrings mortality; but tear One chord affection clings to-part one tie That binds him to a woman's delicate love- And his great spirit yieldeth like a reed.
He gave to her the water and the bread, But spoke no word, and trusted not himself To look upon her face, but laid his hand In silent blessing on the fair-hair'd boy, And left her to her lot of loneliness.
Should Hagar weep? May slighted woman turn, And, as a vine the oak hath shaken off, Bend lightly to her leaning trust again? O no! by all her loveliness-by all That makes life poetry and beauty, no!
Make her a slave; steal from her rosy cheek By needless jealousies; let the last star Leave her a watcher by your couch of pain; Wrong her by petulance, suspicion, all That makes her cup a bitterness-yet give One evidence of love, and earth has not An emblem of devotedness like hers. But oh! estrange her once-it boots not how- By wrong or silence-any thing that tells A change has come upon your tenderness,— And there is not a feeling out of heaven Her pride o'ermastereth not.
She went her way with a strong step and slowHer press'd lip arch'd, and her clear eye undimm'd, As if it were a diamond, and her form
Borne proudly up, as if her heart breathed through. Her child kept on in silence, though she press'd His hand till it was pain'd; for he had caught, As I have said, her spirit, and the seed
Of a stern nation had been breathed upon.
The morning pass'd, and Asia's sun rode up In the clear heaven, and every beam was heat. The cattle of the hills were in the shade,
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