Light for the darkened earth!
Long midnight fleets away,
The Gospel day-star springs to birth,
Whose bright, prelusive ray
Shall glow, till a glorious morning brings
Eternity's cloudless day.
THE DEFECTION OF THE DISCIPLES.
"Then all the disciples forsook him and fled."—St. Matthew.
Fled!—and from whom? The Man of woe
Who in Gethsemane had felt
Such pangs as bade the blood-drops flow
And the crushed heart with anguish melt?
They who were gathered round his board,
Partook his love, beheld his power,
Saw the sick healed, the dead restored,
Fail'd they to watch one fearful hour?
All fled? Yet one there was who laid
His head upon that sacred breast,
By Friendship's holy ardor made
A cherished, an illustrious guest;
One too, who walked with Christ the wave
When the mad sea confessed his sway,
And strangely sealed her gaping grave,—
Fled these forgetfully away?
