SACRED POETRY.

PSALM XCIII. 5.

The waves of the sea are mighty, and rage horribly: but yet the Lord, who dwelleth on high, is mightier.

WHEN high the stormy winds arise,
And fiercely from the lurid skies
The rushing tempests sweep!
How the strong wave its course impels,
And, lash'd to boundless fury, swells
The bosom of the deep!

Yet the great God, who dwells on high,
Beholds, in placid majesty,

The warring winds engage;
Sends them his mandates to fulfil,
And wields, obedient to His will,
The elemental rage.

He speaks the word: through nature's bounds
Quick as that awful voice resounds,

The winds, the floods obey:
The howling blasts forbear to rave,
And ocean smooths its crystal wave
Beneath the tranquil ray.

E'en thus, should passion's swelling tide
With envy, wrath, revenge, or pride,
Disturb my soul within,

Do thou, O Lord, thy grace impart,
Shed its mild influence o'er my heart
To quell the rising sin..

Each wild emotion lay to rest,

Calm the fierce transports of the breast,
And bid its tumult cease:

The whirlwind's madd'ning rage controul,
And hush the tempest of the soul

In penitence and peace,

C. P.

LOVE OF GOD'S LAW, FROM PSALM CXIX.

IN Youth, when passion fires the breast,

And guilty joys allure,

Thy word, O God, directs my path,

And keeps my bosom pure.

Deep in the secrets of my heart
Thy heavenly precept lie,
To fix the wild unsteady thought,
And check the wandering eye.

With more delight I lead my eye
O'er all thy heavenly lore,

Than o'er the gems from Indian climes
Or gold from Ophir's shore.

To all around my lips shall still
Thy sacred law impart,

While speech remains upon my tongue,
Or memory in my heart.

PSALM I.

ON him, who makes his God his guide,
That God shall every bliss bestow,
His hours in tranquil course shall glide,
His heart with calm delight shall glow.
The Sun his daily paths shall light;
And sweetest slumbers bless his night.
That God, who loves his course to trace,
Shall prosper all his holy way:
Adorn'd with health, a blooming race
Around his chearful hearth shall play:
His flocks shall spread the airy down;
His woods the lofty hills shall crown.
So in the green sequester'd mead,

Through which the peaceful waters glide,

Some tree its tall aspiring head

Lifts on the river's fertile side!

Its branches wide around extends,

And with luxuriant fruitage bends.

FROM WORDSWORTH'S ECCLESIASTICAL SKETCHES,

PASTORAL CHARACTER.

A genial hearth, a hospitable board,

And a refined rusticity, belong

To the neat mansion, where, his flock among,
The learned Pastor dwells, their watchful lord.
Though meek and patient as a sheathed sword,
Though pride's least lurking thought appear a wrong
To human kind; though peace be on his tongue,
Gentleness in his heart; can earth afford
Such genuine state, pre-eminence so free,
As when, arrayed in Christ's authority,
He from the pulpit lifts his awful hand;
Conjures, implores, and labours all he can
For re-subjecting to Divine command
The stubborn spirit of rebellious Man?
REMEMBRANCER, No. 45.

3 Z

CATHECHIZING.

From little down to least-in due degree
Around the Pastor, each in new wrought yest,
Each with a vernal posy at his breast
We stood a trembling earnest company!
With low soft murmur, like the distant bee,
Some spake, by thought-perplexing fears betrayed,
And some a bold unerring answer made:
How fluttered then thy anxious heart for me
Beloved Mother! Thou whose happy hand
Had bound the flowers I wore, with faithful tie;
Sweet flowers! at whose inaudible command
Her countenance, phantom like, doth re-appear,
O lost too early for the frequent tear,
And ill requited by this heartfelt sigh!

RURAL CEREMONY.

With smiles each happy face was overspread,
That trial ended. Give we to a day
Of festal joy one tributary lay;

That day when forth by rustic music led
The village children, while the sky is red
With evening lights, advance in long array

Through the still Church-yard each with garland gay
That carried sceptre-like, o'ertops the head-
Of the proud bearer. To the wide Church door,
Charged with those offerings which their Fathers bore
For decoration in the Papal time,

The innocent procession softly moves:

The spirit of Laud is pleased in Heaven's pure clime, And Hooker's voice the spectacle approves!

REGRETS.

Would that our scrupulous Sires had dared to leave
Less scanty measure of those graceful rites ·

And
usages, whose due return invites
A stir of mind too natural to deceive;
Giving the Memory help when she would weave
A crown for Hope! I dread the boasted lights
That all too often are but fiery blights,
Killing the buds o'er which in vain we grieve.
Go, seek when Christmas snows discomfort bring
The counter spirit, found in some gay Church
Green with fresh Holly, every pew a perch
In which the linnet or the thrush might sing,
Merry and loud, and safe from prying search,
Strains offered only to the genial spring.

REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS,

Proofs of Inspiration; or, the Grounds of Distinction between the New Testament and the Apocryphal Volume; occasioned by therecent Publication of the Apocryphal New Testament by Hone, By the Rev. Thomas Rennell, B.D. F.R.S. Vicar of Kensington. 8vo. pp. 164. Rivingtons.

"Quæcunque sedens modo legerat, hæc eadem stans

Proferet atque eadem cantabit versi bus isdem.

Occidit miseros crambe repetita magistros."

The inattention to the old defences, has more than any other cause, multiplied the volumes of controversy: and the only alvantage which the good cause derives from the contest, is, that the truth is presented in a form more adapted to the prevailing habits of thought and reflection, and that the popular work of yesterday may be read, while the more elaborate volume of the last century is neglected. In the recent publication of the Apocryphal New Testament, as it is artfully called, there is little of novelty, little which is not copied from Toland, or stolen without acknowledgment from Jones: its blunders and its fallacies are alone original, if in the latter may be included the division of the several pieces into chapters and verses, with the insidious design of producing a closer resemblance of the ordinary form of the canonical Scriptures, There is

THERE are few men who will deny, that religious error is an evil in it self, or who will not regret, that in the necessity of counteracting its progress, the mild spirit of Christianity is often offended, and that under the ostensible purpose of refutation, there is imminent danger of promoting the circulation of false opinions. The only legitimate end of controversy is the ultimate establishment of truth. When the faith is disputed or denied, it might be supposed incapable of defence, if it were not defended, and the adversary might triumph in the very silence of the apologist. The objection has perhaps been urged and refuted again and again, and it is repeated without any novelty which admits or requires a new and original reply. But the writer has dis-therefore nothing new or worthy to regarded or suppressed the old defence, and the reader may be tempted to suppose the objection irrefragable, if it is not again exposed. There is nothing, in which there is less of originality, than in objections to religious truth: the arguments of infidelity were nearly exhausted before the time of Julian, and however the old exceptions have from time to time been revived, the sceptic has been the most servile of plagiaries, and his whole ingenuity has been restricted to changing the mode and the expression of his opposition to the Gospel. Of the professed unbeliever in all ages it may be said;

challenge a new refutation; but as au impression might be made to the prejudice of the sacred volume, it was necessary that that impression should be prevented; that the falsehood of this new Apocrypha should be exposed, and that the sole authority of the canonical Scriptures should be maintained. This good work has been ably executed in the Quarterly Review (No. L. July 1821.) and if the effect may be calculated from the anger, which it is reported to have provoked, nothing can have been more complete. The suggestion thrown out by the writer of that article, of a popular argument on the case in the form of a