JACOB'S DREAM

Lonely and worn by day's dull toil and heat, Life lay before me stark, and dead, and drear; Night had engulfed the desert, and a fear Was on me as of slow, resistless feet Of foes invisible, from whom retreat Denied me respite! I knew the moment near— Jehovah's hand uplifted, and His spear Down-glancing through the dark my heart to meet;

And as I crouched to take the stroke that fell Swift from the sky, a cloud of cherubim Burst on my vision with a mighty song That filled the wilderness, as though a bell Chimed from afar. Then someone said: "Be strong, Son of the Highest! Find thyself in Him!"