ISRAEL.
And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.—Genesis, xxxii. 27, 28.
Truly God is good to Israel.—Psalm lxxiii. 1.
He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.—Psalm cxxi. 4.
For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land.—Isaiah, xiv. 1.
Whilst Pharoah’s pride withstood,
His pools turned poison, and his Nile ran blood,
From whose corrupting channel, moist and warm,
Leaped forth the frogs, a foul, offensive swarm;
No place was sheltered from their loathsome tread,
The festive banquet, nor the bridal bed.
Anon, destructive sweeps the burning hail,
His trees stand branchless, and his furrows fail;
Whilst from the East, devouring locusts rise,
To spoil the pittance spared him by the skies.
But why on each particular token dwell
Of God’s deep wrath, or all His judgments tell?
Enough to add, that Israel’s thraldom ceased,
From Pharaoh’s stubborn hand, by him released.
William Gibson.
Backsliding Israel, hear the voice
Of thy forgiving God;
Nor force such goodness to exert
The terrors of the rod.
Thus saith the Lord—“My mercy flows,
An unexhausted stream;
And after all its millions saved,
Its sway is still supreme.”
Own but the follies thou hast done,
And mourn thy sins in dust,
And soon thy trembling heart shall learn
To hope, and love, and trust.
Doddridge.
The day of Freedom dawns; rise, Israel, from thy tomb.
Croly.