Heart shrank not before the bitter test of faith,

But he resolved to give his son to God

As a burnt offering upon Moriah’s mount;

That the uplifted knife glittered in the morning

Sun, when, sweeter than the music of a thousand

Harps, he heard a voice bidding him stay his hand,

And spare the child; and how his faith, like gold

Tried in the fiercest fire, shone brighter through

Its fearful test. And then she would tell us

Of a promise, handed down from sire to son,