The high Messiah who should overthrow

The gods that Superstition crowned with might

And set above the world,—the coming Christ

Whose unshed blood should be the holy tryst

'Twixt man and his lost Eden, washing white

From his rebellious soul the serpent's blight.

II.

The fire that on the Magi's altars glowed

Spake to his soul in symbols and expressed

The immortal purity that without rest

Strives with the mortal grossness whose abode

Is in the heart. Their symboled fire showed One

Whose spirit on the altar of the world

Burns ceaselessly,—where, if all vice be hurled,

It shall be purged with fire that shall atone,—

Christ's love the flame, man's sin th' alchemic stone.

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[30]

III.

The light of a new day was on his brow,

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