Christian And Jew - A Dialogue

'Oh happy happy land!     Angels like rushes stand         About the wells of light.' -         'Alas, I have not eyes for this fair sight:     Hold fast my hand.' -     'As in a soft wind, they     Bend all one blessed way,         Each bowed in his own glory, star with star.' -         'I cannot see so far,         Here shadows are.' -     'White-winged the cherubim,     Yet whiter seraphim,         Glow white with intense fire of love.' -     'Mine eyes are dim:         I look in vain above,     And miss their hymn.' -     'Angels, Archangels cry     One to other ceaselessly         (I hear them sing)         One "Holy, Holy, Holy" to their King.' -     'I do not hear them, I.' -     'At one side Paradise         Is curtained from the rest,     Made green for wearied eyes;         Much softer than the breast     Of mother-dove clad in a rainbow's dyes.     'All precious souls are there         Most safe, elect by grace,         All tears are wiped for ever from their face:     Untired in prayer         They wait and praise         Hidden for a little space.     'Boughs of the Living Vine     They spread in summer shine         Green leaf with leaf:     Sap of the Royal Vine it stirs like wine         In all both less and chief.     'Sing to the Lord,         All spirits of all flesh, sing;     For He hath not abhorred         Our low estate nor scorn'd our offering:         Shout to our King.' -     'But Zion said:         My Lord forgetteth me.     Lo, she hath made her bed         In dust; forsaken weepeth she         Where alien rivers swell the sea.     'She laid her body as the ground,         Her tender body as the ground to those     Who passed; her harpstrings cannot sound     In a strange land; discrowned         She sits, and drunk with woes.' -     'O drunken not with wine,         Whose sins and sorrows have fulfilled the sum, -         Be not afraid, arise, be no more dumb;     Arise, shine,         For thy light is come.' -     'Can these bones live?' -          'God knows:         The prophet saw such clothed with flesh and skin;         A wind blew on them and life entered in;     They shook and rose.         Hasten the time, O Lord, blot out their sin,         Let life begin.'