Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

Not knew by sight) now come, who was to come Before Messiah, and his way prepare!

I, as all others, to his baptism came,

Which I believed was from above; but he

Straight knew me, and with loudest voice proclaimed Me him (for it was shewn him so from Heaven)

Me him whose harbinger he was; and first

Refused on me his baptism to confer,

As much his greater, and was hardly won.

But, as I rose out of the laving stream,
Heaven opened her eternal doors, from whence
The Spirit descended on me like a Dove;
And last, the sum of all, my Father's voice,
Audibly heard from Heaven, pronounced me his,
Me his belovèd Son, in whom alone

He was well pleased: by which I knew the time
Now full, that I no more should live obscure,
But openly begin, as best becomes

The authority which I derived from Heaven.
And now by some strong motion I am led
Into this wilderness; to what intent

I learn not yet. Perhaps I need not know;
For what concerns my knowledge God reveals."

So spake our Morning Star, then in his rise,
And, looking round, on every side beheld
A pathless desert, dusk with horrid shades.
The way he came, not having marked return,
Was difficult, by human steps untrod;
And he still on was led, but with such thoughts
Accompanied of things past and to come
Lodged in his breast as well might recommend
Such solitude before choicest society.

Full forty days he passed-whether on hill
Sometimes, anon in shady vale, each night
Under the covert of some ancient oak
Or cedar to defend him from the dew,
Or harboured in one cave, is not revealed;

Nor tasted human food, nor hunger felt,

Till those days ended; hungered then at last Among wild beasts. They at his sight grew mild, Nor sleeping him nor waking harmed; his walk

The fiery serpent fled and noxious worm;

The lion and fierce tiger glared aloof.

UT now an aged man in rural weeds,

BUT

Following, as seemed, the quest of some stray ewe, Or withered sticks to gather, which might serve Against a winter's day, when winds blow keen, To warm him wet returned from field at eve,

TH

HE people that walked in darkness have seen a great light.

For the peace of God is over all the face of the earth. His blessing hath overflowed like a river.

For he created all things that they might be: and he made the nations of the earth for health: and there is no poison of destruction in them, nor kingdom of hell upon the earth.

He saw approach; who first with curious eye

Perused him, then with words thus uttered spake :"Sir, what ill chance hath brought thee to this place, So far from path or road of men, who pass

In troop or caravan? for single none

Durst ever, who returned, and dropt not here

His carcass, pined with hunger and with droughth.

I ask the rather, and the more admire,

For that to me thou seem'st the man whom late

Our new baptizing Prophet at the ford

Of Jordan honoured so, and called thee Son

Of God. I saw and heard, for we sometimes

Who dwell this wild, constrained by want, come forth
To town or village nigh (nighest is far),

Where aught we hear, and curious are to hear,
What happens new; fame also finds us out."

To whom the Son of God:-"Who brought me hither Will bring me hence; no other guide I seek."

"By miracle he may," replied the swain;
"What other way I see not; for we here

Live on tough roots and stubs, to thirst inured
More than the camel, and to drink go far-

Men to much misery and hardship born.

But, if thou be the Son of God, command

That out of these hard stones be made thee bread;

So shalt thou save thyself, and us relieve
With food, whereof we wretched seldom taste."

He ended, and the Son of God replied:-
"Think'st thou such force in bread? Is it not written
(For I discern thee other than thou seem'st),

Man lives not by bread only, but each word
Proceeding from the mouth of God, who fed
Our fathers here with manna? In the Mount
Moses was forty days, nor eat nor drank;
And forty days Elijah without food
Wandered this barren waste; the same I now.
Why dost thou, then, suggest to me distrust,
Knowing who I am, as I know who thou art?"

Whom thus answered the Arch-Fiend, now undisguised :— ""T is true, I am that Spirit unfortunate

Who, leagued with millions more in rash revolt,

Kept not my happy station, but was driven

With them from bliss to the bottomless Deep-
Yet to that hideous place not so confined

By rigour unconniving but that oft,
Leaving my dolorous prison, I enjoy

Large liberty to round this globe of Earth,

I

THE FORMER THINGS ARE PASSED AWAY

AM the Lord that hath made all things.
For there is no power but of God.

And my glory will I not give to another.

To be spiritually minded is life and peace.

The gift of God is eternal life.

For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things.

All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

He hath done all things well.

The Lord hath made all things for himself.

And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.

Know you not, that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

Or range in the Air; nor from the Heaven of Heavens
Hath he excluded my resort sometimes.

I came, among the Sons of God, when he
Gave up into my hands Uzzean Job,

To prove him, and illustrate his high worth;
And, when to all his Angels he proposed
To draw the proud king Ahab into fraud,
That he might fall in Ramoth, they demurring,
I undertook that office, and the tongues

Of all his flattering prophets glibbed with lies
To his destruction, as I had in charge:
For what he bids I do. Though I have lost
Much lustre of my native brightness, lost
To be beloved of God, I have not lost
To love, at least contemplate and admire,
What I see excellent in good, or fair,

Or virtuous; I should so have lost all sense.
What can be then less in me than desire
To see thee and approach thee, whom I know
Declared the Son of God, to hear attent
Thy wisdom, and behold thy godlike deeds?
Men generally think me much a foe

To all mankind. Why should I? they to me
Never did wrong or violence. By them

I lost not what I lost; rather by them

I gained what I have gained, and with them dwell Copartner in these regions of the World,

If not disposer-lend them oft my aid,

Oft my advice by presages and signs,
And answers, oracles, portents, and dreams,
Whereby they may direct their future life.
Envy, they say, excites me, thus to gain
Companions of my misery and woe!

At first it may be; but, long since with woe
Nearer acquainted, now I feel by proof
That fellowship in pain divides not smart,
Nor lightens aught each man's peculiar load;
Small consolation, then, were Man adjoined.

This wounds me most (what can it less?) that Man,
Man fallen, shall be restored, I never more."

To whom our Saviour sternly thus replied :—
"Deservedly thou griev'st, composed of lies
From the beginning, and in lies wilt end,
Who boast'st release from Hell, and leave to come
Into the Heaven of Heavens. Thou com'st, indeed,
As a poor miserable captive thrall

Comes to the place where he before had sat
Among the prime in splendour, now deposed,
Ejected, emptied, gazed, unpitied, shunned,
A spectacle of ruin, or of scorn,

To all the host of Heaven. The happy place

« ZurückWeiter »