THE PLAGUES OF EGYPT.
185
Whilst health and strength, and gladness does possess
The festal Hebrew cottages;
The blest Destroyer comes not there,
To interrupt the sacred cheer
That new begins their well-reformed year:
Upon their doors he read, and understood,
God's protection, writ in blood;
Well was he skill'd i' th' character Divine;
And, though he pass'd by it in haste,
He bow'd, and worship'd, as he pass'd,
The mighty mystery through its humble sign.
The festal Hebrew cottages;
The blest Destroyer comes not there,
To interrupt the sacred cheer
That new begins their well-reformed year:
Upon their doors he read, and understood,
God's protection, writ in blood;
Well was he skill'd i' th' character Divine;
And, though he pass'd by it in haste,
He bow'd, and worship'd, as he pass'd,
The mighty mystery through its humble sign.
The sword strikes now too deep and near,
Longer with its edge to play;
No diligence or cost they spare
To haste the Hebrews now away:
Pharaoh himself chides their delay;
So kind and bountiful is Fear!
But, oh the bounty which to fear we owe,
Is but like fire struck out of stone;
So hardly got, and quickly gone,
That it scarce out-lives the blow.
Sorrow and fear soon quit the tyrant's breast;
Rage and revenge their place possess'd;
With a vast host of chariots and of horse,
And all his powerful kingdom's ready force,
The travelling nation he pursues;
Ten times o'ercome, he still th' unequal war renews.
Longer with its edge to play;
No diligence or cost they spare
To haste the Hebrews now away:
Pharaoh himself chides their delay;
So kind and bountiful is Fear!
But, oh the bounty which to fear we owe,
Is but like fire struck out of stone;
So hardly got, and quickly gone,
That it scarce out-lives the blow.
Sorrow and fear soon quit the tyrant's breast;
Rage and revenge their place possess'd;
With a vast host of chariots and of horse,
And all his powerful kingdom's ready force,
The travelling nation he pursues;
Ten times o'ercome, he still th' unequal war renews.
