200 REDEMPTION.
His beauty, matchless excellence, and truth,
Compassion, wisdom e'en in youth display'd,
Integrity unbending, virtue strong,
Which from the path of rectitude ne'er swerved.
She wonder'd at his words, more at his pow'r,
Such as report had brought them to her ear,
And long'd to see so marvelous a man.
Meanwhile, compunction fill'd her sensuous heart;
Her wanton life disturbed her and distress'd,
Grief roll'd its troubled waves o'er her sad soul,
And oped the sluices of her beaming eyes.
The luctual tide her snowy bosom heaved,
And penitential tears her cheeks bedew'd.
Jesus beheld her, though she knew it not;
As he the guileless Israelite first saw,
Or her, who came from Sichar to the well,
Long ere his presence their devotion warm'd;
Saw her, and heard each sigh, treasured each tear,
Nor waited more that healing balm to yield,
Which secret bade the impure demons flee,
And gave th' impulse that her towards him drew.
The secret influence her spirit own'd,
Yet knew not whence its soothing force emaned.
Rising, she sought the Saviour through the town,
And sought long time in vain with tears and groans.
Not stronger, with desire to quench his thirst,
Longs for some cooling stream the panting hart;
Nor with such anguish sought the Tyrian queen,
Her absent hero on the Libyan shore.
Now Jesus sat at meat in Simon's house, With many, who had come the Man to see, Whose works, coterminous with Jewry wrought,
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