Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

upon its bosom. The despairing multitude fasten upon it an eye of distraction: they implore in vain the assistance of the prophet whom they had despised, and whose pitying eyes are again suffused with unavailing tears. He can bear it no longer. He retires to the innermost recesses of his vessel. In the phrenzy of despair, parents clasp their children to their cold bosoms, and flee to the highest mountains. Where else could they resort for shelter? for the boundless sea saps the foundation of the firmest edifices. What is their desperation as the waves approach the summit! It is equally impossible to descend, to rise higher, or to escape. They have prolonged a miserable existence a few hours, only to sink at last!-It is all in vain! "The waters prevail exceedingly; every high hill is covered; and fifteen cubits" over their loftiest summits, the flood rises in haughty triumph!

PRIDE OF THE HEART.

It was pride that dictated the haughty language of the king of Babylon, when, from the battlements of his palace, he looked down upon his beautiful city, and said "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?" O, how the "pride of his heart deceived" him! "While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; the

kingdom is departed from thee!" The "same hour was he driven from men," and his "dwelling was with the beasts of the field:" his reason was withdrawn, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven." Behold, he that would be thought a God, is become less than a man! Nor were the balances of power again put into his hand till he had been brought to confess, "that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will;" and to acknowledge, in a repentant decree, that "those who walk in pride, he is able to abase."

Happy had it been for his successor, if this awful display of divine justice had wrought in his heart obedience. But Belshazzar learned not wisdom from his grandfather's humiliation. He exceeded his great progenitor in impiety. He stood on the pinnacle of empire, till he was giddy with gazing upon the rolling world beneath him! The forces of Cyrus surrounded the city; but, trusting in its impregnable strength, the defence of the river, and the greatness of his stores, he laughed his enemies to scorn. The feast was spread, and the revellings had commenced. Death hovered round his court, and destruction brooded over his city, while he was sunk in senseless security. And now, the voice of joy, and the noise of riot, resound through the palace. The monarch calls upon his nobles to devote the hours to gaiety; to scatter their fears to the winds; to drink defiance to the warrior advancing to their very gates; and, to fill the meas

ure of his iniquity, to add insult to the miseries of his captives, to crown dissipation with sacrilege, he requires, last of all, the vessels of the sanctuary, that they might be profaned by their application to not merely common uses, but to the vile purposes of debauchery. It is done. The king is lost in unbounded pleasure, and intoxicated with unlimited power. In one moment the voice of riot ceases -silence, as profound as the stillness of the grave, reigns through the whole palace-every tongue is chained-every eye is fixed-despair lowers on every countenance-the charm is broken-and the night of feasting is turned into unutterable horror! See! yonder shadow, wearing the appearance of the fingers of a man's hand, glides along the wall of the palace opposite the monarch, and writes, in mysterious characters, "MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN." What has changed that youthful countenance? What has chased its bloom of beauty, and drawn on it the strong lines of misery? Behold this king who lately dreamed that he was more than mortal, trembling on his throne! "The joints of his loins are loosed, and his knees smite one against another!" What the army of Cyrus could not do, a supernatural hand, writing four little words, has effected; and his soul melts within him through terror! But say, What is the cause of this premature distress? Perhaps yonder inscription declares the permanence of his kingdom; and inscribes, in those hidden characters, the destruction of his enemies? Ah no! Conscience

read too well the handwriting; and interpreted the solemn sentence of impending ruin, long before Daniel explained the inscription! While all was riot during the first part of the night, and dismay during the remainder, Cyrus had diverted the river from its course, had entered the city through its exhausted channel, unperceived, and was now at the palace gates. The empire was lost; the captive Jews were liberated; and "that same night was Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans slain." Behold another, added to the innumerable sad evidences, that the "pride of the heart" fatally "deceives," and finally ruins those who cherish it.

MEMORIALS OF GRATITUDE.

As Abraham journied in the road by which he had descended into Egypt, he came again to an altar, which he had before set up, in his way thither. Sweet are the recollections of kindnesses received; and pleasant the memorials of mercies departed! If we were to accustom ourselves to rear tokens of remembrance for every assistance which we derive from God, and to erect an altar where we receive a mercy, how many evidences for good would be presented in the retrospection of our lives; and the review of the past would create confidence for the future. The moss might grow over the pillar, and the fire of the altar would go out; but the inscription would be fresh on the

tablet of memory, and gratitude would kindle the purer flame of affection in the heart. Thus Abram reared an altar in his way to Egypt; and found it again on his return. Thus Jacob elevated a pillar at Bethel, after his vision of God; and with what feelings did he revisit it, when he was delivered from his fears, and increased in his blessings! Thus "Samuel took a stone, and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, 'Hitherto hath the Lord helped us !'" It is not necessary that we should erect these outward memorials: but let the pillar be raised in our bosoms, and the inscription read in our lives!

DESTRUCTION OF SODOM.

WE have selected for our contemplation the moment when the attention is arrested by the conviction of impending danger; and the point of history where the interest of the reader is excited in anticipation of its issue. The sacred writer discovers in this, as in every record of his pen, singular ability in touching the heart; while he preserves a wonderful simplicity throughout the whole narration. All is nature in his descriptions; and his assertions bear on their very face the impress of truth.

With what grandeur the scene opens upon us. The day dawns, which is to vanish from the eyes of the wicked before its meridian; and they gaze, unconscious of danger, upon the earliest glories of

« AnteriorContinuar »