The Three Hebrews

Eleazar's Prayer

 .

Monarch most powerful ! highest, mightiest God ! Whose mercies all creation ever guide

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Eo ! Abraham's seed—lo ! Jacob's sacred race

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Thy sanctified inheritance—thy lot

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What wrongs we suffer in a stranger-land.

Thou—when stern Pharaoh, Egypt's mighty lord,

Spread forth his chariot-band in proud array,

And with high-swelling boasts defied thy power;

Him and his host, beneath the boiling wave Of his own sea didst whelm ; while with mild ray

O'er Israel's rescued sons thy mercy shone.

THE PRAYER OF ELEAZAR. xli Thou—when Sennacherib, Assyria's chief,

The self-styled conqueror of a little world,

Proud of his countless troops, his battles won,

His cities sack't, and idol-gods overthrown

—

Could not restrain his bursting insolence,

But rashly dar'd thy holy land to invade;

—

Thou, to the world displaying thy vast might,

The empty threatenings of his idle tongue

Didst in one moment, and for ever, quell.

When the three Hebrew youths in Babel's court

SustahVd the trial ; whom nor threats could force,

Nor soft persuasion charm, to bow the knee

In idol-worship; —firm in faith they stood,

(Jnmov'd, unflinching; while beneath their glance

The courtiers withered, and the baffled king

ChampH at his favours spurnYl, his power defied.

He ask\l their conscience—and they gave their lives. But when his angry furnace flanrTd on high

With seven-fold fury chargYl, from its huge mouth

Gaping as if for prey, whole sheets of fire Burst forth beyond controul, and with blind rage

The helpless ministers for victims slew.

Into this lake, of fire and seeming death,

Bound hand and foot, they sank.—But quickly rose, And walked, unharnfd, and free. —For Thou ucrt

there!

At thy command, above, below, around,

The laughing flames played harmless; and a dew

Heaven-sent,breathed such cool freshness o'er the place,

The tyrant's Hell became God's Paradise.

—

Thou from the Assyrian lions' hungry jaws

Didst rescue Daniel, foully doomed to die. And Jonah, in the huge sea-monster's maw

I n m in r*<l, beyond all hope of human aid,

To his despairing friends didst sale restore. And now, most merciful, all-seeing (ion.

Hater of insolence, thyself display

A Swift avenger of tin people's wrongs,

Whom odious heathens lawlessly oppress.

This Prayer found within the book of Maccabee