Sadness of a homeless people;

Anguish of a chided mortal,

Hounded, tracked, oppressed, and beaten,
Made the scourge of God on earth;
Outcry of a sinful bosom

Warring with his guilt and wrong.
'Tis a saintly aspiration

Of a holy soul in prayer;

'Tis the music hummed by mercy,
When the heart is touched by love.
'Tis the welding of all mercy,
Love, forgiveness, in a union,
Sweeping o'er the span of ages,
Flooding earth with one majestic,
Universal hymn of woe,

As if God had willed his children
Weep in but one human strain.

Who can hear this strange Kol Nidré
Without dropping in the spell? -
Lift the vestige of the present,
Link the momentary fleeting
Of the evening with the past;
Dwell a spirit in the ages,
Living in the heart of time:
Lose the sense of outer worlds,
Soul alone in endless time,

Breathing but the breath of ages.

Kippur

JOSEPH LEISer.

OH, thou Eternal and Omnipotent!

How shall thy erring children come to Thee And ask for peace? Although the head be bent, Even as a bulrush, 'tis but a mockery

If the dark, sin-struck heart still cling to earth;
Still make its idol of the world's frail clay,

And the pure and glorious forget its birth.
Before the glittering bubble of a day.

Or if a spark of hatred linger still

Against a brother, sinful though he be,

Oh! Thou in Heaven, how shall we come to Thee?
Vain are the words that spring with empty sound
While the insensate heart betrays no wound,
And we are slaves unto our stubborn will.

But if, oh, Thou eternal God of love,

If we perchance, find favor in Thy sight,
Guide us oh, Holy One! from this our night
And grant remission from thy courts above.
Low in the dust we mourn the fatal sin

That hath beguiled our souls from the true path.
Oh, deal not on our heads thy fearful wrath;
Forgive the past and grant us strength to win
The glorious prize of immortality,

The bliss to dwell forevermore with thee.
We are thy children-let our prayers arise
Like the sweet incense of a sacrifice,
And from this day henceforward let us be

Bound by love's holiest ties, our God, to Thee.

REBEKAH HYNEMAN.

Day of Atonement

'HIS day sublime elect, my God, to Thee

THIS

Is gift so grand

That on this morn of grace from sin set free,
I pleading stand

Before Thy holy dwelling place

Where light and beauty interlace.

Oh, that the priceless power were mine
To glorify Thy throne divine!

ANONYMOUS.

Yom Kippur

LORD of Hosts, Thou Only One,
Art radiant in star and sun,

"Thy Will be done!"

All life is Thine ere life's begun,
All life is Thine when life is run,
"Thy Will be done!"

The scarlet thread of sin is spun,
Forgive us, Gracious, Holy One,
"Thy Will be done!"

GEORGE ALEXANDER KOHUT.

Prayer for the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur, 5662.)

[F I have failed, my God, to see

IF

That Thy great Love was guiding me; If I have missed the open path

Of Truth, which e'er Thy sanction hath;
If, busy with the passing hour,

I noted not Thy glorious Power;
And, 'mid the boast and pomp of things,
Restrained my spirit on its wings;
Then, Father, show me Grace I pray,
And lead me toward the righteous way;
Then, Lord of Hosts, compassion me,
And let Thy Love my shelter be!

O

GEORGE ALEXANDER KOHUT.

Yom Kippur

To Thee we give ourselves today,

Forgetful of the world outside; We tarry in Thy House, O Lord, From eventide to eventide.

From Thy all-seeing, righteous eye

Our deepest heart can nothing hide;
It crieth up to Thee for peace
From eventide to eventide.

Who could endure, should'st Thou, O Lord,
As we deserve, forever chide?
We therefore seek Thy pardoning grace
From eventide to eventide.

O may we lay to heart how swift
The years of life do onward glide;
So learn to live that we may see
Thy light at our life's eventide.

GUSTAV GOTTHEIL.

The White and Scarlet Thread
The Message of the Atonement
TURN, O Israel, turn and live;

Thought to thread of warning give.

Lo! the solemn hour is here.

May the thread be white and clear
Though deep sin the conscience darken.

Sinner, pray and God will hearken.

ANONYMOUS.

After Yom Kippur

'HE great white fast! the day that solemnly

THE

Its clarion-call sent over land and sea,

In gracious summons of the Voice Divine;

That bade the soul before truth's inner shrine,

Clad in the whiteness of humility,

Itself disrobed of all externals be;

What mandate gave the day to you and me?

It is the judgment day of all the year!
Unmasked, life's vices hideously appear,
As conscience struggles with its deadly fear;
With introspection's force by memory driven,
We find the flower-strewn path led far from heaven.
At cost of highest aims flung in the dust,

We have been faithless, merciless, unjust.

As by Thy shrines of prayer, devout we stood, Throbbed heart with will-power's love of brotherhood? With invocations to Thy holy name,

Looked we beyond reward of earthly fame?

Dared we Thy present inspiration seek,

With might of gold's oppression 'gainst the weak?

The glowing friendship, as a meteor's flight,
Lost in the storm depths of swift falling night;
O'er all the beautiful, cast worldly blight.
Shall the reverberating call in vain

Echo throughout the awaiting world's domain?
Nor summon Israel from lethargic sleep,
In broader fields, on grander heights to reap?

The Past is o'er; has justice entered in
The awakened conscience? and the worldly din
Died into silence 'neath the voice of God?
Know we the wherefore of the chastening rod?
That mercy's tenderness our hearts enshrine
Are we uplifted to the heights divine?
Cleansed from the idol worship of our pride,
White robed humility be teaching guide;
And Israel's heart of kinship link the hands,
Of the compassionate throughout all lands.
The righteousness of freedom, understood
Bind all of life in one vast brotherhood.

CORA WILBURN.