54 LINES BY A LADY. Go, hear what I have heard, The sobs of sad despair, As memory, feeling's fount hath stirred, Have told him what he might have been, Go to thy mother's side, And her crushed spirit cheer; Thine own deep anguish hide, Wipe from her cheek the tear, Mark her dimmed eye, her furrowed brow, Go, hear, and see, and feel and know, All that my soul hath felt or known, Then look upon the wine-cup's glow, See if its brightness can atone, Think, if its flavour you would try, CHRISTIANITY. Tell me I hate the bowl? Hate is a feeble word I loathe, abhor-my very soul With strong disgust is stirred, 55 Christianity. IF Providence had intended no other object but to awaken and exercise the human intellect, Christianity would have done for man what no other system has effected. It went forth in its very childhood like its own great Master, into the very sanctuary of heathen philosophy, and sat down there, not only to hear and answer questions, but to teach and confute. In other times with an intensity of purpose, which nothing but real devotion could support, it threw forth the noblest feelings and affections of man into creations of beauty, such as no worldly thought realized: creations, not of the eye, but of the heart, into which, by a deep and conscious instinct, the soul of man was transfused, and which, therefore, will act upon that soul, even to the latest generation; not as the toys and playthings of modern art, merely to amuse and surprise, but as the works of God in nature, to feed and invigorate and govern. FINE sensibilities are like woodbines-delightful luxuries of beauty to twine round a solid upright stem of understanding: but very poor things, if, unsustained by strength, they are left to creep along the ground. When will the Millennium come? The wing *** THERE is a charm in the millennial name. of poetry flags under this great conception. Sometimes we see it under the type of a wilderness newly clothed with bud and blossom: sometimes we see it under the type of a city descending from Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband: sometimes we behold it as a great temple, arising out of the earth, and capacious enough to contain all nations. This temple is not built of earthly materials, that will perish with the using, but is supported on immutable columns. Every great moral and religious principle is a pillar in the millennial temple. The principle of total abstinence from all intoxicating liquors is one pillar the doctrine that all slave-holding is sinful is another pillar, standing firm, awfully grand and immovable: the doctrine of the absolute inviolability of human life is another this is in a state of preparation, but it will soon ascend, and stand brightly and majestically in its place: and thus, principle after principle will be established, in the tops of the mountains, and shall expand upon the eye of the beholder, far more beautiful than the Parthenon! And what then will be wanting? Only that the nations in the language of prophecy, shall flow into it: only that the people should occupy it, and rejoice in it: and this is millennial glory. But, unless yon have firm, unchangeable, immutable principles, it will be like a certain house, that was built upon the sand: “and the rains descended, and the floods came, and it fell, and great was the fall of it." The doctrines of the millenium are the doctrines of to-day: the • principles of the millennium are the very principles which are obligatory on the men of the present generation: the bond which will exclude all contention, and will bind together all hearts, will be nothing more nor less than the Gospel of Christ. UPHAM. Lines by De-Wette. WORLD Redeemer! Lord of Glory! Did thy risen form appear, Come, arrayed in heavenly beauty, "Hast thou not," the master answered, "Hast thou not my written word? Hast thou not, to go before thee, Doubts torment me when I study :- And in mire my feet are sinking. Strive to follow, strive in vain. Let me gaze, then, on thy glory, Change to flesh this heart of stone Let the light illume my darkness, That around the apostle shone! 58 LINES BY DE-WETTE. Cold belief is not conviction- In my heart the voice made answer, Life as well as Light is given. All his glory thou shalt see— "Love the Lord, and thou shalt see Him: In his acts of love and mercy, From the Gospel's simplest lines!" THERE is something in the condition of a slave, that, beyond every other marked by human misery, defies the power of hope to gild its future and herein, perhaps, lies (though it seems like a paradox,) the secret of those light smiles and all that careless merriment, of which we are told by those who would defend the abomination. It is only when it is possible that some change may alter our condition, that we feel either anxious or hopeful about it. King David fasted and wept while his spirit was suspended between hope and fear: but when all was overwhen all hope had fled, he arrayed himself and feasted. |