"No more from rocky Horeb
The smitten waters gush;
Fallen is Bethel's ladder,
Quenched is the burning bush.
"The jewels of the Urim
And Thurnmim all are dim;
The fire has left the altar,
The sign the teraphim.
"No more in ark or hill grove
The Holiest abides;
Not in the scroll's dead letter
The eternal secret hides.
"The eye shall fail that searches
For me the hollow sky;
The far is even as the near,
The low is as the high.
"What if the earth is hiding
Her old faiths, long outworn?
What is it to the changeless truth
That yours shall fail in turn?
"What if the o'erturned altar
Lays bare the ancient lie?
What if the dreams and legends
Of the world's childhood die?
"Have ye not still my witness
Within yourselves alway,
My hand that on the keys of life
For bliss or bale I lay?
"Still, in perpetual judgment,
I hold assize within,
With sure reward of holiness,
And dread rebuke of sin.
"A light, a guide, a warning,
A presence ever near,
Through the deep silence of the flesh
I reach the inward ear.
"My Gerizim and Ebal
Are in each human soul,
The still, small voice of blessing,
And Sinai's thunder-roll.