Within which lasting precinct spreads a land To tell of deep-felt sorrow when 'tis glad, Or present pleasure, though its thoughts be sad. Or that the smile must needs the truth declare; For man's a thing of trifles—of delay, Of grief for time pass'd unimprov'd away ; Of sorrow, as he makes resolves, to fail, And o'er his broken promises bewail; ham) for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."-Hebrews xi. 10. (39) ❝There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary be at rest.”—Job iii. 17. (40)❝Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness."-Proverbs xiv. 13. A thing now seen to flourish as we pass, But soon to fade and die as summer's grass. So toil then, that thy work be done, before The night shall come, when man can work no more. The curtain of this life must fall, the last Of these few fleeting scenes will soon be past; Would it may then be found thou hast not slept,(41) That when the cry shall be to ope the gate, The Bridegroom comes! it may not be too late. Thy furnish'd lamp, and to go in with him. Which wasteth not, and fire that grows not dim: (41) "Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning, for blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when he cometh shall find watching."-Luke xii. 35. See our Lord's exposition of this duty in the beautiful parable of the Ten Virgins.— St. Matthew xxv. (42) The light of the righteous rejoiceth, but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out."-Proverbs xiii. 9. But of the wicked none shall tell his ways, The Lord hath said it,(45) can He not fulfil (43) "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle and are spent without hope."-Job vii. 6. (44) So I saw the wicked buried who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done."-Ecclesiastes viii. 10. (45) "The Lord of Hosts hath purposed it, and who shall disannul it, and His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back."-Isaiah xiv. 27. Did they escape his anger then, or find A death unlike the death of all mankind ?(46) Did they, alas! we ask, unpunished, strive Did Pharaoh and his impious hosts withstand Thy crimes, thy grandeur, and thine overthrow; (46) "If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men, then the Lord hath not sent me; but if the Lord make a new thing and the earth open her mouth and swallow them up with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit, then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord." -Numbers xvi. 29. (47) "And Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore." -Exodus xiv. 30. (49) Sodom and Gomorrah are said to have been situated near the western shore of the Lacus Asphaltites or Dead Sea : the Scriptures tell us of their signal destruction by fire from heaven, on the improbability of which much has been sceptically advanced, however (says Gleig in his history of the Bible): we have only to remark that the tale is told in a book profess Tell of the fire which swept thee from the earth, There was a voice then heard to intercede(50) With God, to stay the horrors of that deed; ing to be written by divine inspiration, and there is nothing more improbable in this, considering it as a divine interference in the ways of men, than in any other judgment recorded in the bible. If God willed to destroy these cities there is no reason why He should not have employed fire as the instrument of His vengeance; indeed, the aspect of the country more especially of the Dead Sea, clearly indicates that at some period or other a dreadful convulsion of nature took place there." For a more detailed account of this interesting spot, see Dr. Clark and Reland's travels through Judea. (50) See Genesis xviii. 23. |