Their vines a shadow to their race shall yield,
And the same hand that sowed shall reap the field;
The swain in barren deserts with surprise
See lilies spring and sudden verdure rise,
And starts, amidst the thirsty wilds, to hear
New falls of water murmuring in his ear.
On rifted rocks, the dragon's late abodes,
The green reed trembles and the bulrush nods;
Waste sandy valleys, once perplexed with thorn,
The spiry fir and shapely box adorn:
To leafless shrubs the flow'ring palms succeed,
And od❜rous myrtle to the noisome weed.
The lambs with wolves shall graze the verdant mead,
And boys in flow'ry 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 tongues shall innocently play.
Rise, crowned with light, imperial Salem, rise!
Exalt thy tow'ry head, and lift thine 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 barb'rous nations at thy gates attend,
Walk in thy light, and in thy temple bend;
See thy bright altars thronged with prostrate kings,
And heaped with products of Sabæan springs,
For thee Idume's spicy forests blow,
And seeds of gold in Ophir's mountains glow.
See heaven its sparkling portals wide display,
And break upon thee 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
Revealed, 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 fixed His word, His saving power remains,
Thy realm for ever lasts, thy own Messiah reigns.
NOTES.-The bard is the prophet Isaiah. Sharon—a plain of Canaan, east of Joppa. Visual ray, the eye. Adamantine means properly, like a diamond, which is very hard, so it is used to express very hard. Falchion, a crescent-shaped sword. Noisome, poisonous. Mead, meadow. Salem, Jerusalem. Sabæa, Arabia Felix. Idumé, Edom south of the Dead Sea. Ophir, India. Cynthia, the moon. Steer, an ox. Basilisk, a serpent with a white star on its head.
"Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."-Isaiah vii. 14.
THE scene around me disappears,
And borne to ancient regions,
While time recalls the flight of years
I see angelic legions
Descending in an orb of light:
Amidst the dark and silent night
I hear celestial voices.
Tidings, glad tidings from above
To every age and nation!
Tidings! glad tidings! God is love,
To man He sends salvation !
His Son beloved, His only Son,
The work of mercy hath begun;
Give to His name the glory!
Through David's city I am led,
Here all around are sleeping;
A light directs to yon poor shed,
There lonely watch is keeping:
I enter; ah! what glories shine!
Is this Immanuel's earthly shrine,
Messiah's infant temple?
It is, it is; and I adore
This Stranger meek and lowly,
As saints and angels bow before
The throne of God thrice Holy;
Faith through the veil of flesh can see
The face of thy Divinity,
My Lord, my God, my Saviour!
"He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised."-Luke iv. 18.
BORNE already from the gate,
In the cave entombed of late,
Wrapped in shroud, detained in prison,
Thou canst raise me,—thou hast risen!
Speak! the rock no longer holdeth!
Speak! the grave-shroud straight unfoldeth!
To the light the prisoner boundeth,
When the cave- -Come forth!-resoundeth.
On a sea without a shore
Pirate barks beset me sore;
Mightiest Pilot! be my stay!
Calm the winds, the billows lay!
Chase the foe, confirm the weak!
Guide me to the port I seek!
Cast a pitying eye on me,
Fruitless and unthankful tree:
Instant death its boughs inherit,
If thou judgest as they merit;
Yet awhile reprieve from slaughter,
Tend, and till, and dig, and water;
If they meet at last thy frown,
Woe is me! then cut them down!
All his art my tempter urges;
Wounds with flame and whelms with surges;
Thence, afflicted and distrest,
Unto thee I look for rest.
That he do me no more wrong,
That the weak may be the strong,
Give me graces, firm and lasting,
Those blest graces, prayer and fasting:
From his power, if Christ saith true,
Thou wilt free me by these two.
From his malice set me free,
Give me constant trust in thee:
Give me fear, which, cast away,
I become his easy prey:
Give me sober piety,
Faith and hope and charity;
Wean from every earthly love,
Set my heart on things above;
Lord! by thee my trust is bounded:
Let me never be confounded!
"Lord, save us: we perish."-Matt. viii. 25.
Он, help us, Lord! each hour of need,
Thy heavenly succour give;
Help us in thought, in word, and deed,
Each hour on earth we live.
Oh, help us when our spirits bleed
With contrite anguish sore;
And when our hearts are cold and dead,
Oh, help us, Lord, the more!
Oh, help us, through the prayer of faith,
More firmly to believe;
For still the more the servant hath,
The more shall he receive.
If strangers to thy fold we call,
Imploring at thy feet,
The crumbs that from thy table fall,
'Tis all we dare entreat.
But be it, Lord of mercy, all,
So thou wilt grant but this:
The crumbs that from thy table fall
Are light, and life, and bliss.
Oh, help us, Jesus, from on high!
We know no help but thee:
Oh, help us so to live and die,
As thine in heaven to be!
"Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Rom. vii. 24.
LORD, when my soul her secrets doth reveal,
All self-condemned before thy throne I kneel,
And own my thoughts unclean, my words untrue,
Deeds nothing worth, eyes blind, and flattering too.
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