If on the book itself we cast our view, Concurrent heathens prove the story true: The doctrine, miracles; which must convince,

For Heaven in them appeals to human sense: And though they prove not, they confirm the cause,

On every leaf bedewed with drops of love
Divine, and with the eternal heraldry
And signature of God Almighty stamped
From first to last, this ray of sacred light,
This lamp, from off the everlasting throne,
Mercy brought down, and in the night of
Time

Stands, casting on the dark her gracious bow
And evermore beseeching men, with tears
And earnest sighs, to read, believe, and live.

LINES

Said to have been found in Lord Byron's
Bible.

WITHIN this awful volume lies
The mystery of mysteries.
Oh! happiest they of human race,
To whom our God has given grace
To hear, to read, to fear, to pray,

But better had they ne'er been born, Who read to doubt, or read to scorn.

THE BIBLE A LIGHT TO THE CHRISTIAN'S FEET.

MONTGOMERY.

WHAT is the world ?-a wildering maze, Where sin hath track'd ten thousand ways,

Her victims to ensare;

All broad, and winding, and aslope,
All tempting with perfidious hope,
All ending in despair.

Millions of pilgrims throng these roads, Bearing their baubles of their loads

Down to eternal night; Narrow, and rough, and steep, ascends One only path that never bends, From darkness into light.

Is there no guide to show that path? The Bible!-He alone who hath

The Bible need not stray; But he who hath, and will not give That light of life to all that live, Himself shall lose the way.

THE SCHEME OF REDEMPTION.

WATTS.

THE mighty frame of glorious grace, That brightest monument of praise, That e'er the God of love design'd, Employs and fills my labouring mind.

Begin my soul the heav'nly song,-
A burden for an angel's tongue;
When Gabriel sounds these awful things,
He tunes and summons all his strings.

Proclaim inimitable love!-
Jesus the Lord of worlds above,
Puts off the beams of bright array,
And veils the God in mortal clay.

He that distributes crowns and thrones Hangs on a tree, and bleeds and groans! The Prince of Life resigns his breath; The King of Glory bows to death!

But see the wouders of his power,-
He triumphs in his dying hour!
And while by Satan's rage he fell,
He dash'd the rising hopes of Hell.

Thus were the hosts of death subdued,
And sin aton'd by Jesus' blood;
Then he arose, and reigns above,
To conquer sinners by his love.

Who shall fulfil this boundless song!
The theme surmounts an angel's tongue :
How low, how vain, are mortal airs,
When Gabriel's nobler harp despairs!

MILTON.

MAN with his whole posterity must die, Die he or Justice must; unless for him Some other able, and as willing, pay The rigid satisfaction, death for death.

Say heav'nly powers! where shall we find such love?

Which of you will be mortal to redeem Man's mortal crime, and just the unjust to save?

Dwells in all Heaven Charity so dear?

He ask'd, but all the heav'nly quire stood

mute,

And silence was in Heav'n: on Man's behalf
Patron or intercessor none appear'd
Much less that durst upon his own head draw
The deadly forfeiture, and ransom set.
And now without redemption all mankind
Must have been lost, adjudged to death and
hell

By doom severe, had not the Son of God,
In whom the fullness dwells of love divine,
His dearest mediation thus renew'd:

Father! thy word is passed, Man shall find

grace;

And shall Grace not find means, that finds her way,

The speediest of thy winged messengers,
To visit all thy creatures, and to all
Comes unprevented, unimplored, unsought?
Happy for Man, so coming; he her aid
Can never seek, once dead in sins and lost;
Atonement for himself or offering meet,
Indebted and undone, hath none to bring:
Behold me then; me for him, life for life
I offer; on me let thine anger fall;
Accept me Man; I for his sake will leave
Thy bosom, and this glory next to thee
Freely put off, and for him lastly die
Well-pleas'd; on me let Death wreck all his
rage;

Under his gloomy power I shall not long
Lie vanquish'd; thou hast giv'n me to pos-

sess

Life in myself for ever; by thee I live, Tho' now to death I yield, and am his due All that of me can die: yet that debt paid, Thou wilt not leave me in the loathsome

grave

His prey, nor suffer my unspotted soul For ever with corruption there to dwell; But I shall rise victorious, and subdue

My vanquisher, spoiled of his vaunted spoil;

and stoop

Inglorious of his mortal sting disarm'd.

I thro' the ample air in triumph high

Shall lead Hell captive, maugre Hell, and

show

The powers of darkness bound.--Thou at the sight

Pleas'd out of Heaven shalt look down and smile,

While by thee rais'd I ruin all my foes; Death last, and with his carcass glut the grave:

Then with the multitude of my redeem'd Shall enter Heav'n-long absent, and return, Father! to see thy face, wherein no cloud Of anger shall remain, but peace assured And reconcilement; wrath shall be no more Thenceforth, but in thy presence joy entire.

WONDERS OF REDEMPTION.

YOUNG.

FIRST-BORN of Æther! high in fields of light!

View man, to see the glory of your God! Could angels envy, they had envied here: And some did envy: and the rest, though gods,

YOUNG.

THOU most indulgent, most tremendous Power,

Still more tremendous for THY wondrous love!

That arms, with awe more awful, thy commands,

And foul transgression dips in sev❜nfold night.
How our hearts tremble at thy love immense !
In love immense, inviolably just!
Thou, rather than thy justice should be
stain'd,

Didst stain the cross; and work of wonders far

The greatest, that thy dearest far might bleed;

Bold thought!-shall I dare speak it, or

repress?

Should man more execrate, or boast, the

guilt

Which roused such vengeance? which such

love inflam'd?

man,

Tempted to weigh the dust against the skies) They less would feel, though more adorn my theme.

They sang creation (for in that they shared :) How rose in melody, that child of Love! Creation's great superior, man! is thine! Thine is redemption; they just gave the key; 'Tis thine to raise and eternise the song: Though human, yet divine; for should not this

Raise man o'er man, and kindle seraphs here?

What, but the fathomless of thought divine,
Could labour such expedient from despair,
And rescue both? Both rescue! both exalt!
Oh how are both exalted by the deed!
The wondrous deed! or shall I call it more?
A wonder in Omnipotence itself!
A mystery no less to gods than men!

YOUNG.

AND what is this? Survey the wondrous

cure:

Pardon for infinite offence! and pardon Through means which speak its value infinite! A pardon bought with blood, with blood DIVINE!

With blood divine of Him I made my foe! Persisted to provoke! though woo'd and aw'd;

Bless'd and chastis'd, a flagrant rebel still! A rebel 'midst the thunders of his throne ! Nor I alone! a rebel universe!

My species up in arms !-Not one exempt! Yet for the foulest of the foul HE dies,— Most joy'd for the redeem'd from deepest guilt!

As if our race were held of highest rank,And Godhead dearer as more kind to man!

Bound every heart! and every bosom burn!

O what a scale of miracles is here?
Its lowest round high planted on the skies
Its tow'ring summit lost beyond the thought
Of man or angel! Oh that I could climb
The wonderful ascent, with equal praise!
Praise flow for ever, (" if astonishment
Will give thee leave") my praise for ever
flow;

Praise ardent, cordial, constant, to high

heaven

More fragrant than Arabia sacrificed, And all her spicy mountains in a flame.

THE MESSIAH.

POPE.

YE nymphs of Solyma! begin the song:

Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend, And white-robed Innocence from heaven descend.

Swift fly the years, and rise the expected

morn!

The Saviour comes! by ancient bards foretold;

Hear him, ye deaf; and all ye blind, behold! He from thick films shall purge the visual

ray,

And on the sightless eye-ball pour the day: 'Tis He the obstructed paths of sound shall clear,

And bid new music charm the unfolding ear: The dumb shall sing, the lame his crutch forego,

And leap exulting, like the bounding roe. No sigh, no murmur, the wide world shall hear;

From every face He wipes off every tear. In adamantine chains shall death be bound, And hell's grim tyrant feel the eternal wound. As the good shepherd tends his fleecy care, Seeks freshest pasture, and the purest air; Explores the lost, the wandering sheep directs,

By day o'ersees them, and by night protects; The tender lambs he raises in his arms, Feeds from his hand, and in his bosom

warms:

Thus shall mankind his guardian care engage,
The promised father of the future age.
No more shall nation against nation rise,
Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful
eyes,

Nor fields with gleaming steel be cover'd o'er,

The brazen trumpets kindle rage no more; But useless lances into scythes shall bend, And the broad falchion in a plough-share

end.

Then palaces shall rise; the joyful son
Shall finish what his short-lived sire begun;
Their vines a shadow to their race shall

yield,

And the same hand that sow'd, shall reap the field.

The swain in barren deserts with surprise Sees lilies spring, and sudden verdure rise; And starts, amidst the thirsty wilds to hear New falls of water murm'ring in his ear. On rifted rocks, the dragon's late abodes, The green reed trembles, and the bulrush nods.

Waste sandy valleys, once perplex'd with thorn,

The spiry fir and shapely box adorn:

To leafless shrubs the flowery palms succeed, And odorous myrtle to the noisome weed. The lambs with wolves shall graze the verdant mead,

And boys in flowery bands the tiger lead. The steer and lion at one crib shall meet, And harmless serpents lick the pilgrim's feet.

The smiling infant in his hand shall take The crested basilisk and speckled snake, Pleased, the green lustre of the scales survey, And with their forky tongue shall innocently play.

Rise, crown'd with light, imperial Salem rise!

Exalt thy towery head, and lift thy eyes!
See a long race thy spacious courts adorn;
See future sons, and daughters yet unborn,
In crowding ranks on every side arise,
Demanding life, impatient for the skies!
See barbarous nations at thy gates attend,
Walk in thy light, and in thy temple bend:
See thy bright altars throng'd with prostrate
kings,

And heap'd with products of Sabean springs :
For thee Idumé's spicy forests blow,
And seeds of gold in Ophir's mountains glow.
See heaven its sparkling portals wide display,
And break upon them in a flood of day!
No more the rising sun shall gild the morn,
Nor evening Cynthia fill her silver horn;
But lost, dissolved in thy superior rays,
One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze
O'erflow thy courts: the Light himself shall
shine

Reveal'd, and God's eternal day be thine! The seas shall waste, the skies in smoke decay,

Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away! But fix'd his word, his saving power remains; Thy realm for ever lasts, thy own Messiah reigns!

PREDICTED ADVENT OF THE MESSIAH.

SOTHEBY.

REJOICE! Rejoice! (the son of Jess' exclaim'd,)

'Tis present. Lo! the luminous vision clear!

N