Religious and Moral Poems | Page 8

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sword gird on," he said,
And plac'd a mighty helmet on his head:

The coat, the sword, the helm he laid aside,
Nor chose to venture with
those arms untry'd,
Then took his staff, and to the neighb'ring brook

Instant he ran, and thence five pebbles took.
Mean time descended
to Philistia's son
A radiant cherub, and he thus begun:
"Goliath,
well thou know'st thou hast defy'd
"Yon Hebrew armies, and their
God deny'd:
"Rebellious wretch! audacious worm! forbear,
"Nor
tempt the vengeance of their God too far:
"Them, who with his
Omnipotence contend,
"No eye shall pity, and no arm defend:

"Proud as thou art, in short liv'd glory great,
"I come to tell thee thine
approaching fate.
"Regard my words. The Judge of all the gods,

"Beneath whose steps the tow'ring mountain nods,
"Will give thine
armies to the savage brood,

"That cut the liquid air, or range the wood.

"Thee too a well-aim'd pebble shall destroy,
"And thou shalt perish
by a beardless boy:
"Such is the mandate from the realms above,

"And should I try the vengeance to remove,
"Myself a rebel to my
king would prove.
"Goliath say, shall grace to him be shown,
"Who
dares heav'ns Monarch, and insults his throne?"
"Your words are lost
on me," the giant cries,
While fear and wrath contended in his eyes,


When thus the messenger from heav'n replies:
"Provoke no more
Jehovah's awful hand
"To hurl its vengeance on thy guilty land:
"He
grasps the thunder, and, he wings the storm,
"Servants their
sov'reign's orders to perform."
The angel spoke, and turn'd his eyes
away,
Adding new radiance to the rising day.
Now David comes:
the fatal stones demand
His left, the staff engag'd his better hand:

The giant mov'd, and from his tow'ring height
Survey'd the stripling,
and disdain'd the fight,
And thus began: "Am I a dog with thee?

"Bring'st thou no armour, but a staff to me?
"The gods on thee their
vollied curses pour,
"And beasts and birds of prey thy flesh devour."

David undaunted thus, "Thy spear and shield
"Shall no protection
to thy body yield:
"Jehovah's name------no other arms I bear,
"I ask
no other in this glorious war.
"To-day the Lord of Hosts to me will
give
"Vict'ry, to-day thy doom thou shalt receive;
"The fate you
threaten shall your own become,
"And beasts shall be your animated
tomb,
"That all the earth's inhabitants may know
"That there's a
God, who governs all below:
"This great assembly too shall witness
stand,
"That needs nor sword, nor spear, th' Almighty's
hand:

"The battle his, the conquest he bestows,
"And to our pow'r consigns
our hated foes."
Thus David spoke; Goliath heard and came
To
meet the hero in the field of fame.
Ah! fatal meeting to thy troops and
thee,
But thou wast deaf to the divine decree;
Young David meets
thee, meets thee not in vain;
'Tis thine to perish on th' ensanguin'd
plain.
And now the youth the forceful pebble slung
Philistia
trembled as it whizz'd along:
In his dread forehead, where the helmet
ends,
Just o'er the brows the well-aim'd stone descends,

It pierc'd
the skull, and shatter'd all the brain,
Prone on his face he tumbled to
the plain:
Goliath's fall no smaller terror yields
Than riving
thunders in aerial fields:
The soul still ling'red in its lov'd abode,

Till conq'ring David o'er the giant strode:
Goliath's sword then laid its
master dead,
And from the body hew'd the ghastly head;
The blood
in gushing torrents drench'd the plains,
The soul found passage
through the spouting veins.
And now aloud th' illustrious victor said,


"Where are your boastings now your champion's
"dead?"
Scarce
had he spoke, when the Philistines fled:
But fled in vain; the
conqu'ror swift pursu'd:
What scenes of slaughter! and what seas of
blood!
There Saul thy thousands grasp'd th' impurpled sand
In
pangs of death the conquest of thine hand;
And David there were thy
ten thousands laid:
Thus Israel's damsels musically play'd.
Near
Gath and Edron many an hero lay,
Breath'd out their souls, and curs'd
the light of day:
Their fury, quench'd by death, no longer burns,

And David with Goliath's head returns,
To Salem brought, but in his
tent he plac'd
The load of armour which the giant grac'd.
His
monarch saw him coming from the war,
And thus demanded of the
son of Ner.
"Say, who is this amazing youth?" he cry'd,
When thus
the leader of the host reply'd;
"As lives thy soul I know not whence
he sprung,
"So great in prowess though in years so young:"
"Inquire
whose son is he," the sov'reign said,
"Before whose conq'ring arm
Philistia fled."
Before the king behold the stripling stand,
Goliath's
head depending from his hand:
To him the king: "Say of what martial
line
"Art thou, young hero, and what sire was thine?"
He humbly
thus; "The son of Jesse I:
"I came the glories of the field to try.

"Small is my tribe, but valiant in the fight;
"Small is my city, but thy
royal right."
"Then take the promis'd gifts," the monarch cry'd,

Conferring riches and the royal bride:
"Knit to my soul for ever thou
remain
"With me, nor quit my regal roof again."
Thoughts on the WORKS OF PROVIDENCE.
A R I S E, my soul, on wings enraptur'd, rise
To praise the monarch
of the earth and skies,
Whose goodness and benificence appear
As
round its centre moves