Averts his face th' indignant sun,
Intent their dreadful deed to shun,
And darkness veils the sky.

The wave recoils on Jordan's bed,
Earth to her centre shakes;
The fiend, exulting, rears his head;
From their dark house th' astonish'd dead
Return; the tomb awakes.

Cease, Salem! cease thy temple-song!
O! shrieve thee and repent!
Thy children wrought this cruel wrong,
And many a weary day, and long,
Thy children must lament.

As from the sun dark shadows fly,
Thy shadowy ark withdraw!
The man thine envy dooms to die
A richer manna shall supply,
And teach a purer law.

Thy priests have slain, with purpose fell,

Their last great sacrifice;

And Hebrew, Greek, and Latin tell, "A king who loved his people well, "Now, for that people dies."

Bow! temple bow! thy glories fail!
And fails thy fire to burn!

This hour hath rent thy mystic veil :
The Gospel comes it must prevail.-
Let Priests, let Levites mourn!

:

An awful pause a blank despair,
One universal gloom;

Pervaded earth, pervaded air,

As would TH' OMNIPOTENT prepare
One universal tomb.

With altered step, pensive and slow;
Heart struck, the crowd return'd:
They came as to some cominon shew;
But, smitten with severest woe,

They beat their breasts, and mourn'd.

The salix, cypress, and the palm,

On Kedron's banks that wave;

Breath'd solemn notes with evening calm,
As sang they some funereal psalm
At our MESSIAH's grave.

Our sins infix'd his rankling wound,

His agony severe ;

In Gethsemane's gloom profound,

From the pale suppliant to the ground
When crimson flow'd the tear.

Love the great price, our ransom gave :
Love nail'd him to the tree;

He came, my sinful soul to save;
He died, to snatch me from the grave;
He lived, he died, for me.

Then dress with sackcloth every mind,
A solemn vigil keep :

HE, the GREAT FRIEND of human kind,
For us his precious life resign'd

And we for Him will weep.

The Resurrection.

A HYMN.

B.

THE SAVIOUR, theme for songs of old,
The SAVIOUR came, by seers foretold,
O'er Satan to prevail :

He came, He died, He overcame ;

Shout, Heaven and Earth! with loud acclaim, "Hail! GOD'S MESSIAH! hail !"

Come, seize the sacred lyre again,
Strike with glad heart a loftier strain,
For HE who died to save,

Who came the bliss of heaven to give,
Who spent his life, that man might live,
Ariseth from the grave.

Ascend! O Jesus! to receive

That praise which angels burn to give,
Thy praise so dearly won!
THEE, Cherubim preluding sweet,
Combine with Seraphim to greet,
JEHOVAH'S VICTOR-SON!

MESSIAH dies, and death is dead;
He riseth, and the fiend hath fled;
His grave, the grave destroys:
Two nights he prest a rich man's tomb,
Scoop'd from the live rock's marble womb,
With the third morn to rise.

The matrons, who, the cross beside,
Were present when their Master died,

O'erwhelm'd with grief and shame;
Their last sad rites of love to pay,
While dubious set the tide of day,
To his sepulchre came.

P

But not the cold and dreary tomb
Could hold within its silent womb

Whom heaven, whom earth revere ;
They saw the grave-clothes loosely spread,
They saw where JESUS laid his head,
But, JESUS was not there.

"Whom seek ye?" then an angel said, "That JESUS, on the cross who bled, "This tomb could not retain : "Haste ye! to his disciples say, "The LORD loved is on his way ye "To Galilee again."

The angel ceased. At Jacob's well
Who bad, his gospel truths to tell,
A female intervene;

Sent the first herald of his name,
His Resurrection to proclaim,

A Mary Magdalene.

The hills that move, the rocks that melt, That tremor which all Asia felt,

Bespake his dying pain:

Rend, hearts of rock! your homage pay!

Ye souls of marble! melt away!

For JESUS lives again.