RABBI SIMEON'S PARABLE by Margaret J. Preston

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 12, 1877

RABBI SIMEON'S PARABLE

By Margaret J. Preston

And it came to pass, as the sun waxed hot, And crowds in the synagogue came and went, That under an oak they pitched his tent, And the Rabbi sat and taught.

And ever and oft as his eyes would stray Beyond the circle that girt him round, On Lebanon’s slopes they rested—crowned With its silvery crown alway;

As along by the brinded belts of green, Leading their flocks from rill to rill, Up where the grass shone lusher still, Were the distant shepherds seen.

Then lifting his voice, the Rabbi spake To his young disciples: “Behold ye, now, Those sheep new-washen, on Horon’s brow, Each fair as a fresh snow-flake;

“And mark in their very midst, as well Ye wondering may, where, quiet as though It followed beside the mother doe, There browses a brown gazelle.

“And Imlah the shepherd avoucheth thus Concerning the dappled thing: One day As it watched from a crag the flocks at play, Gamboling and riotous,

“From its rocky haunts and its bleating dam’s Udder unweaned, it straightway sped Down into the pastured plain, and fed As a lamb amidst the lambs.

“And at folding-time when the day is o’er, Wild-natured still and as shy as erst, It follows the flock, and is oft-times first To enter the wattled door.

“And therefore doth Imlah the shepherd shield It even with yet a gentler care Than any his bosom weanlings share, As he leadeth them all a-field.

“He hath cherished them alway; they have left No wilderness mates—no coverts grown Beloved by reason of use—alone To break from their native cleft

“And join them with strangers. Hearken ye Now unto my parable’s lesson: God, Who guideth his chosen with staff and rod, Where fairest the pastures be,

“Doth welcome the alien, who to dwell Among them all other ties hath riven, With love that is passing tender—even As the shepherd yon brown gazelle.”

—Margaret J. Preston.