CAPTIVITY.
By the rivers of Babylon there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?—Psalm cxxxvii. 1, 2, 3, 4.
The Lord their God shall visit them, and turn away their captivity.—Zephaniah, ii. 7.
That they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will.—II. Timothy, ii. 26.
He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity.—Revelations, xiii. 10.
We sat by Babel’s waters; and our tears
Mingled in silence with the silent stream;
For, oh! our hearts went back to happier years,
And brighter scenes, that faded like a dream.
Our harps, neglected, hung upon the trees,
That threw their shadows o’er the wave’s dark rest,
And sighed, responsive to each passing breeze
That stirred a ripple on its slumbering breast.
But they who led us captive touched the string,
And waked its music with unhallowed hand,
And—mocking all our sadness—bade us sing
The song of Zion in a foreign land.
Oh! never, never!—hushed be now its strains,
Far, far away her exiled children roam;
And never will they sound on other plains,
The holy music of their native home.
T. K. Hervey.
Thousands of Angels at Thy gate,
And great archangels stand,
And twenty thousand chariots wait,
Great Lord, Thy dread command!
Through all Thy great, Thy vast domain,
With Godlike honours clad,
Captivity in captive chains
Triumphing Thou hast led.
Mickle.