Henceforth with her that holy gift and guide, Truth's high revealer and interpreter; Henceforth with her the Father and the Son, 770 Absent, yet present by the Comforter; Of great lights twain, the lesser, ruling night, Moon to that Sun, whose realm the rounded Day. Resplendent night, while flame those fluent stars[16], That still a spotless brow bediadem; Circling forever round their central Light, And, Him withdrawn, repeating from afar, And gladdening with His rays a gloom-hung world. As set that Sun, sinking in seas of blood, Sinking to soar above a mightier morrow, 780 Follow the lingering stars, save haply one[17], Through mystic night of ages sparkling lone, And speaking in high splendor things to come. Most lustrous of the living lamps of God, 'Mid human lights, divinely luminant. Rarest of twelve, remaining oracle, Reserved unto a wondrous destiny; Pilot of peoples, nations, tribes and tongues, Leading the lost[18] ones from captivity. Beloved of Love--life's King, death's Conqueror, 790 Tarrying by will of Him through troubled time, Lighting the way unto eternity. And thou, e'en thou, O Woman Wonderful! Safe for a season from the She-Wolf's maw, Far borne, east, west, on power's imperial wings, Nourished 'neath Caesar's shield, till Caesar's sword Hath turned upon and made thee desolate. Thou too must pass--not perish--in thy time. Betrayed to foes without, by false within, E'en as thy Lord thou sufferest martyrdom. 800 But what avails to baffle Him or bind? Vain, dragon, vain thy deluge of deceit, Thy flood of lies, thou false one from of old! Vain, wrath of devils and of men combined, Bent to defile the sacred Bride of Christ. Triumphs the Man-Child[19], heaven now summons home; Triumphs the Woman in the wilderness, 'Scaping the jaws, the hungering gates of hell, That 'gainst the mortal part alone prevail; Body, not spirit, crushed and all o'ercome. 810 Throned upon higher worlds, she reigneth still; And here shall rise unto the regnant place, When rolls the stone upon the image doomed, When God hath fanned with fire His threshing floor. Till then proud Japheth sways[20], while Jacob mourns, Fainting 'neath yokes and fardels, prostrate, prone, With Judah undermost, the last of all The trampled tribes to taste of liberty. Haply ordained a lesser power to wield, Antaeus-like[21], from touching of the ground; 820 Bent, curst, yet clutching, and by might of gold Conquering his dust-adoring conqueror[22]. For God, through all, remembers Abraham, Ordained of old His lineal house to be. Came not the Christ their covenant to fulfill? Who but an Israel might offer Him? Whose hand than Judah's might Jehovah slay? "His blood be on our head"--Ay, rests it there! Weightier than worlds by that high death redeemed.