But, hark! the vesper call to prayer, As slow the orb of daylight sets, Is rising sweetly on the air, From SYRIA’S thousand minarets! The boy has started from the bed Of flowers, where he had laid his head, And down upon the fragrant sod Kneels,[193] with his forehead to the south, Lisping the’ eternal name of God From Purity’s own cherub mouth, And looking, while his hands and eyes Are lifted to the glowing skies, Like a stray babe of Paradise, Just lighted on that flowery plain, And seeking for its home again. Oh! ’twas a sight—that Heaven—that child— A scene, which might have well beguil’d Even haughty EBLIS of a sigh For glories lost and peace gone by! And how felt _he_, the wretched Man Reclining there—while memory ran O’er many a year of guilt and strife, Flew o’er the dark flood of his life, Nor found one sunny resting-place, Nor brought him back one branch of grace! “There _was_ a time,” he said, in mild, Heart-humbled tones—“thou blessed child! “When, young and haply pure as thou, “I look’d and pray’d like thee—but now—” He hung his head—each nobler aim, And hope, and feeling, which had slept From boyhood’s hour, that instant came Fresh o’er him, and he wept—he wept! Blest tears of soul-felt penitence! In whose benign, redeeming flow Is felt the first, the only sense Of guiltless joy that guilt can know. “There’s a drop,” said the PERI, “that down from the moon “Falls through the withering airs of June “Upon EGYPT’S land,[194] of so healing a power, “So balmy a virtue, that e’en in the hour “The drop descends, contagion dies, “And health re-animates earth and skies!— “Oh, is it not thus, thou man of sin, “The precious tears of repentance fall? “Though foul thy fiery plagues within, “One heavenly drop hath dispell’d them all!” And now—behold him kneeling there By the child’s side, in humble prayer, While the same sunbeam shines upon The guilty and the guiltless one, And hymns of joy proclaim through Heaven The triumph of a Soul Forgiven! ’Twas when the golden orb had set, While on their knees they linger’d yet, There fell a light more lovely far Than ever came from sun or star, Upon the tear that, warm and meek, Dew’d that repentant sinner’s cheek. To mortal eye this light might seem A northern flash or meteor beam— But well the’ enraptur’d PERI knew ’Twas a bright smile the Angel threw From Heaven’s gate, to hail that tear Her harbinger of glory near!