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SAUL.

[The three selections which fill up the rest of this little volume are given as specimens of the distinctively Christian poems of our author. The first gives us Christ in the Old Testament; the second, Christ in the New; the third, Christianity in its essential truth and practical application. As only a portion of "Saul" can be given, a few words will be necessary to prepare the reader unacquainted with the whole for taking up the thread at the 14th stanza, from which, in the selection, the poem is continued uninterruptedly to the end]

Young David is telling over to himself (see "my voice to my heart," in stanza 14) the story of his mission to Saul, when, as an inspired poetmusician, he charmed the evil spirit away from him. Stanza 16, consisting of one line, is the hinge of the entire poem; for David has just reached the point where, after several unsuccessful, or very partially successful, attempts-first, by playing one and another and another tune, which might awaken some chord in the apathetic spirit of the king, and then by singing, accompanied by the harp, first, of the joy of life, then of the splendid results of a royal life like Saul's in the great future of the world-he at last, the truth coming upon him, strikes the high key where full relief is found. As he approaches this crisis in the tale, he cannot go on without an earnest invocation for help to tell what he had been so wonderfully led to sing

xiv.

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AND behold while I sang but O Thou who didst grant me, that day,

And, before it, not seldom hast granted thy help to essay, Carry on and complete an adventure,—my shield and my sword

In that act where my soul was thy servant, thy word was my word,

Still help me, who then at the summit of human endeavour And scaling the highest, man's thought could, gazed hopeless

as ever

On the new stretch of heaven above me-till, mighty to save, Just one lift of thy hand cleared that distance-God's throne from man's grave !

Let me tell out my tale to its ending—my voice to my heart Which scarce dares believe in what marvels last night I took part,

As this morning I gather the fragments, alone with my sheep! And fear lest the terrible glory evanish like sleep,

For I wake in the grey dewy covert, while Hebron upheaves Dawn struggling with night on his shoulder, and Kidron retrieves

Slow the damage of yesterday's sunshine.

XV.

I say then, my song

While I sang thus, assuring the monarch, and, ever more

strong,

Made a proffer of good to console him—he slowly resumed His old motions and habitudes kingly.

replumed

The right hand

His black locks to their wonted composure, adjusted the

swathes

Of his turban, and see-the huge sweat that his countenance

bathes,

He wipes off with the robe; and he girds now his loins as of

yore,

And feels slow for the armlets of price, with the clasp set

before.

He is Saul, ye remember in glory,—ere error had bent

The broad brow from the daily communion; and still, though

much spent

Be the life and the bearing that front you, the same, God did

choose,

To receive what a man may waste, desecrate, never quite lose.

So sank he along by the tent-prop, still, stayed by the pile

Of his armour and war-cloak and garments, he leaned there awhile,

And sat out my singing,—one arm round the tent-prop, to

raise

His bent head, and the other hung slack-till I touched on the praise

I foresaw from all men in all time, to the man patient there; Then first I was

And thus ended, the harp falling forward.

'ware

That he sat, as I say, with my head just above his vast knees Which were thrust out on each side around me, like oak roots which please

To encircle a lamb when it slumbers. I looked up to know If the best I could do had brought solace : he spoke not, but slow

Lifted up the hand slack at his side, till he laid it with care Soft and grave, but in mild settled will, on my brow: thro'

my hair

The large fingers were pushed, and he bent back my head, with kind power

All my face back, intent to peruse it, as men do a flower. Thus held he me there with his great eyes that scrutinized

mine

And oh, all my heart how it loved him! but where was the

sign?

I yearned-"Could I help thee, my father, inventing a bliss,

"I would add, to that life of the past, both the future and

this;

"I would give thee new life altogether, as good, ages hence,

66

As this moment,-had love but the warrant, love's heart

to dispense !"

XVI.

Then the truth came upon me. No harp more—no song more! outbroke—

XVII.

"I have gone the whole round of creation: I saw and I

spoke ;

"I, a work of God's hand for that purpose, received in my

brain

"And pronounced on the rest of his handwork-returned him again

"His creation's approval or censure: I spoke as I saw,

“Reported, as man may of God's work—all 's love, yet all 's

law.

"Now I lay down the judgeship he lent me.

tasked

Each faculty

"To perceive him has gained an abyss, where a dew-drop

was asked.

"Have I knowledge ? confounded it shrivels at Wisdom laid

bare.

"Have I forethought? how purblind, how blank, to the Infinite Care!

"Do I task any faculty highest, to image success?

"I but open my eyes,--and perfection, no more and no less,

"In the kind I imagined, full-fronts me, and God is seen God "In the star, in the stone, in the flesh, in the soul and the clod.

"And thus looking within and around me, I ever renew

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'(With that stoop of the soul which in bending upraises it

too)

"The submission of man's nothing-perfect to God's allcomplete,

"As by each new obeisance in spirit, I climb to his feet. "Yet with all this abounding experience, this deity known, "I shall dare to discover some province, some gift of my

own.

"There's a faculty pleasant to exercise, hard to hood-wink, "I am fain to keep still in abeyance, (I laugh as I think) "Lest, insisting to claim and parade in it, wot ye, I worst "E'en the Giver in one gift.—Behold, I could love if I durst! "But I sink the pretension as fearing a man may o'ertake "God's own speed in the one way of love: I abstain for love's sake.

"What, my soul? see thus far and no farther? when doors great and small,

"Nine-and-ninety flew ope at our touch, should the hundredth

appal ?

"In the least things have faith, yet distrust in the greatest of

all?

"Do I find love so full in my nature, God's ultimate gift, "That I doubt his own love can compete with it? Here, the

parts shift?

'Here, the creature surpass the Creator,-the end what

began ?

“Would I fain in my impotent yearning do all for this man,

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