Again with water will I drown the earth! To Him who is my Equal on my throne, Look on my bow! and read in it my truth!" 910. And now 'tis silence; till the angel's voice, Blended with myriad voices in the skies, Sends forth high antiphons in strains like these: "Praise be to God! How righteous are his ways! Lift hallelujahs to his holiness! Praise be to God! his mercy hath appear'd: Behold it in the rainbow of the skies! Praise ye the Lord! for ever he is king! High King of Kings! and Lord of Lords! Noah joins the chorus! and his wife and sons, 920. And his sons' wives, give utterance to praise! The Patriarch reigns three hundred, fifty years 919. Noah joins the chorus, &c.-Praise has ever constituted the noblest part of divine worship; and the reflection, that in heaven, the blessed company "rest not day and night" in the tribute of thanksgiving, should require nothing ascititious to prompt those who frequent the sanctuary of God's truth upon earth, to "sing with the spirit," and to "sing with the understanding also." What is more chilling to thought, and unwelcome to the heart, than the silence of the major portion of a large congregation, whilst a few isolated voices (exclusive, of course, of those of parochial school children and stipendiary choristers) are chanting the magnificent "Te Deum," or the grand and generous "Jubilate ?" Those who are expert in the solution of paradoxes may perhaps be able to solve this riddle, viz. :-The old hundredth Psalm, commencing,— "All people that on earth do dwell, Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice," looked at by the eyes of seven or eight hundred people, and sung only by the voices of five or six! Psalmody is the embodiment in words of the highest gratitude of the soul; and therefore it is noble, and has nothing in it mean, or akin to meanness. It will ever be the Christian man's delight, not only in the temple, but also in the circle of his family, and in his private resorts, imparting a rich foretaste of that beatified enjoyment which is to be A king on earth; then takes his flight to Prepar'd for righteous men by God most high! And there's one church, one holy cath❜lic church commensurate with eternity. "They must have hearts very dry and tough," says Hooker, "from whom the melody of psalmody doth not sometime draw that, in which a mind religiously affected delighteth." Puritanism, perhaps, after all, and an ostentatious singing, or, rather, bawling or screaming of certain versicles called hymns (the enthusiastic vagaries, I mean, of intoxicated minds) have been instrumental, more than any-thing else, in the sealing up of the mouths of God's people. Better days, it is to be hoped, are now at hand: "O sing unto the Lord a new song, sing unto the Lord all the whole earth!" 927. And there's one church, one holy cath'lic church.-Dr. Hook, in his justly celebrated sermon, says, our duty it is clearly to define, and zealously to maintain, those peculiar doctrines, and that peculiar discipline, which have always marked, and do still continue to mark, the distinction between the church of Christ, administered under the superintendence of chief pastors or bishops who have regularly succeeded to the Apostles, from those sects of Christianity which exist under self-appointed teachers."-Vide "Hear the Church," page 12. Against which hell itself shall near prevail! This church shall keep its one-ness till the morn 930. When angel trumpets tell the Lord is come! God! haste that day! 931. God! haste that day!-Notwithstanding the fact, that to pray for the times when "the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ," is amongst the high privileges which belong exclusively to Christians, the man who would not forfeit such privilege must devote his best energies to objects of vital importance, and strive, as far as in him lies, to make known God's "truth upon earth, his saving health among all nations." This can be done efficiently by no other extern machinery than that which the church catholic has provided for the purpose. "Pious individuals," said Sir Robert Peel in the House of Commons, "feel deeply that they cannot make a better offering to Almighty God, in return for the prosperity with which they are blest, than in rescuing those by whose labour they have attained their wealth, from their present indifference to his religion, and their want of ability to attend his ordinances!" THE END. M. Bingley, Printer, 60, Cannon Street, City. |