The sweetest words that ever fell
By mount or wave, in shrine or cell,
Or, altar-chanted, stole through aisle
The tortured heart from pain to wile,
Are these the Master spoke when free
He walked thy shores, fair Galilee!
And called his burdened followers there
With tender love and pitying prayer:
Whoe'er ye be, alien or neighbor, father, mother, maiden, with grief and care opprest,
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest!
What glorious hope uplifts the throng
As float these blessed words along!
Prophet nor priest nor angels seven
Had opened thus the gate of heaven,
And he who treads, like them, the sod,
Must be Messiah, Son of God!
Oh, life had been a weary quest,
But now they shall find rest, find rest!
Transporting grace that thus distils
The dew of peace upon their hills,
And, far from court or Temple's shrine,
Takes, for the lowest, thought divine!—
Whoe'er ye be, alien or neighbor, father, mother, maiden, with grief and care opprest,
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest!
More dazzling Hermon lifts his snow;
Fairer the blue lake gleams below;
The wind sings, down Esdraelon;
Glad are the oaks in Tabor's glade;
And, hoar with thousand years of shade,
The cedars thrill on Lebanon;
While Jordan's oleander bowers
In rosier bloom unfold their flowers,
And listening waves make low replies
As breathes that strain of Paradise:
Whoe'er ye be, alien or neighbor, father, mother, maiden, with grief and care opprest,
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest!
And still that sweet, celestial call
Wafts down from wave and mountain wall;—
O rest of God! O perfect Peace!
Bring to our burdened souls release!
For faint and worn and grieved are we
As those who walked by Galilee!
And clouds in sunshine will depart,
And wildest tumult sink to calm,
If deep we hear within the heart
The Master's words that drop as balm:
Whoe'er ye be, alien or neighbor, father, mother, maiden, with grief and care opprest,
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest!