I rise at dawn and still the salt stream flows, My heart’s blood would I shed to find repose; But when my soul is downcast with my woes, I will recall my prayer at night. My youth wanes like a shadow that is cast, Swifter than eagles’ wings my years fly fast, And I remember not my gladness past, Either by day or yet by night. Proclaim we then a fast, a holy day, Make pure our hearts from sin, God’s will obey, And unto Him, with humble spirits, pray Unceasingly, by day and night. May we yet hear His words: “Thou art my own, My grace is thine, the shelter of My throne, For I am thy Redeemer, I alone! Endure but patiently this night.” MOSES IBN EZRA. The Living God We Praise The living God we praise, exalt, adore! He was, He is, He will be evermore. No unity like unto His can be, Eternal, inconceivable, is He. No form or shape has th’ Incorporeal One, Most holy beyond all comparison. He was, ere aught was made in heaven or earth, But His existence has no date or birth. Lord of the Universe is He proclaimed, Teaching His power to all His hand has framed. He gave His gift of prophecy to those In whom He gloried, whom He loved and chose. No prophet ever yet has filled the place Of Moses, who beheld God face to face. Through him (the faithful in his house) the Lord The law of truth to Israel did accord. This law God will not alter, will not change For any other through time’s utmost range. He knows and heeds the secret thoughts of man, He saw the end of all ere aught began. With love and grace doth He the righteous bless, He metes out evil unto wickedness. He at the last will His anointed send, Those to redeem, who hope and wait the end. God will the dead to life again restore, Praised be His glorious name for evermore. ANON. FOOTNOTES 1 Exod. xxiv. 12. 2 So named from its situation at the mouth (“Pum”) of the Bedaitha, a canal between the Tigris and the Euphrates. 3 The Cherem was most fearful. The excommunicate was cursed with the curse of Joshua against Jericho, and the curse of Elisha against those that mocked him, and the curse of fiends of deadly power: “Let nothing good come out of him, let his end be sudden, let all creatures become his enemy, let the whirlwind crush him, the fever and every other malady, and the edge of the sword smite him; let his death be unforeseen and drive him into outer darkness,” etc. There were three degrees of excommunication. The first was “the casting out of the synagogue.” The second “the delivering over to Satan.” And the third was the anathema proclaimed by priests with the sounding of trumpets. 4 Some think he died twelve years B.C.