The Sabbath Day—Kiddush and Habdalah

THOU sweet Sabbath of rest! Priceless gift from above!

Sacred symbol of faith! Fruitful token of Love!

Thrice welcome to him who hath cast off the coil

Of wearisome, worrying, work-a-day toil;

Then in spirit ecstatic that thrills the heart’s chord

He exclaims: “Enter hither thou blest of the Lord.”

For prepared is my home as a fit dwelling-place

For Heavenly Messengers, Angels of Grace,

Who bear on their wings a new spirit benign

That suffuses man’s soul with afflatus divine;

Thus bestowing upon him, for one day in seven,

While a creature incarnate, a foretaste of Heaven.