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Still in their van, along the dreadful road,
Blazed broad and fierce the brandished torch of God.
Its meteor glare a tenfold lustre gave
On the long mirror of the rosy wave:
While its blest beams a sunlike heat supply,
Warm every cheek, and dance in every eye-
To them alone—for Mizraim's wizard train
Invoke for light their monster gods in vain;
Clouds heaped on clouds their struggling sight confine,
And tenfold darkness broods above their line.
Yet on they fare, by reckless vengeance led,
And range unconscious through the ocean's bed.
Till midway now-that strange and fiery form
Showed his dread visage lightning through the storm;
With withering splendor blasted all their might,
And brake their chariot wheels and marred their cour-
ser's flight.

"Fly, Mizraim, fly!"-From Edom's coral strand
Again the prophet stretched his dreadful wand:-
With one wild crash the thundering waters sweep,
And all is waves—a dark and lonely deep.

REGINALD HEBER.

The Destruction of Pharaoh MOURN, Mizraim, mourn! The weltering

wave

Wails loudly o'er Egyptia's brave

Where, lowly laid, they sleep;
The salt sea rusts the helmet's crest;
The warrior takes his ocean-rest,

Full far below the deep.

The deep, the deep, the weary deep!

Wail, wail, Egyptia! mourn and weep!

For many a mighty legion fell

Before the God of Israel.

Wake, Israel, wake the harp. The roar
Of ocean's wave on Mizraim's shore

Rolls now o'er many a crest.
Where, now, the iron chariot's sweep?
Where Pharaoh's host? Beneath the deep
His armies take their rest.
Shout, Israel! Let the joyful cry
Pour forth the notes of victory;
High let it swell across the sea,
For Jacob's weary tribes are free!

JOHN RUSKIN.

The Passage of the Red Sea

N the sand and sea-weed lying,

ON

Israel poured her doleful sighing,
While before the deep sea flowed,
And behind fierce Egypt rode,
To their fathers' God they prayed,
To the Lord of Hosts for aid.

On the margin of the flood
With lifted rod the prophet stood;

And the summoned east wind blew,

And aside it sternly threw

The gathered waves that took their stand,

Like crystal rocks, on either hand,

Or walls of sea-green marble piled

Round some irregular city wild.

Then the light of morning lay
On the wonder-paved way,
Where the treasures of the deep
In their caves of coral sleep.
The profound abysses, where
Was never sound from upper air,
Rang with Israel's chanted words:
King of king and Lord of lords!

Then, with bow and banner glancing,
On exulting Egypt came,

With her chosen horsemen prancing,
And her cars on wheels of flame,
In a rich and boastful ring,
All around her furious king.

But the Lord from out his cloud

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The Lord looked down upon the proud,
As the host drave heavily
Down the deep bosom of the sea.
With a quick and sudden swell
Prone the liquid ramparts fell;
Over horse and over car,
Over every man of war,
Over Pharaoh's crown of gold,
The loud thundering billows rolled.
As the level water spread,

Down they sank, they sank like lead,
Down without a cry or groan.
And the morning sun that shone
On myriads of bright-armed men,
Its meridian radiance then

Cast on a wide sea, heaving as of yore
Against a silent, solitary shore.
Then did Israel's maidens sing,
Then did Israel's timbrels ring,

To Him, the King of kings that in the sea
The Lord of lords had triumphed gloriously!
HENRY HART MILMAN,

IN

Passage of the Red Sea

N doubt, in weariness, in woe,
The host of Israel flee;

Behind them rode the raging foe,
Before them was the sea.

The angry waters at their feet,

All dark and dread, rolled on; And where the sky and desert meet, Spears flashed against the sun.

But still along the eastern sky
The fiery pillar shone,

And o'er the waves that rolled so high
It bade them still come on.

Then Moses turned the sea toward,
And raised his hand on high;
The angry waters know their lord:
They know him, and they fly.

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Where never gleamed the red sunlight,
Where foot of man ne'er trod,
Down, down they go, and left and right
The wall of waters stood.

Full soon along that vale of fear,
With cymbals, horns, and drums,
With many a steed and many a spear
The maddening monarch comes.

A moment-far as eye could reach,
The thronging myriads tread;
The next-the waste and silent deep
Was rolling o'er their head.

ANONYMOUS.

The Song of Miriam

"Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea."-Exod. xv. 21.

YE

E daughters and soldiers of Israel look back! Where where are the thousands that shadowed your track,

The chariots that took the deep earth as they rolled The banners of silk and the helmets of gold?

Where are they-the vultures whose beaks would have

fed

On the tide of your hearts ere the pulses had fled?
Give glory to God, who in mercy arose,

And strewed 'mid the waters the strength of our foes.

When we traveled the waste of the desert by day,
With his banner-cloud's motion he marshalled the way:
When we saw the tired sun in his glory expire
Before he walked, in a pillar of fire.

But this morn, and the Israelites' strength was a reed
That shook with the thunder of chariot and steed,
Where now are the swords and their far-flashing
sweep?

Their lightnings are quenched in the depth of the deep.

O thou, that redeemest the weak one at length
And scourgest the strong in the pride of their strength,
Who holdest the earth and the sea in thine hand,
And rulest Eternity's shadowy land-

To thee let our thoughts and our offerings tend,
Of virtue the Hope, and of sorrow the Friend.
Let the incense of prayer still ascend to thy throne,
Omnipotent-glorious-eternal-alone.

ANONYMOUS.

Sound the Loud Timbrel

SOUND the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea!

Jehovah hath triumphed His people are free. Sing for the pride of the tyrant is broken,

His chariots, his horsemen, all splendid and brave, How vain was their boasting-the Lord hath but spoken,

And chariots and horsemen are sunk in the wave. Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea! Jehovah has triumphed-His people are free.

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