Within which lasting precinct spreads a land
Which ever fruitful needs no toiling hand;
Into which bright and chosen place, the bless'd
Flee on the wings of joy, and are at rest.(39)
We know this life must prove us, this career
Through which we quickly pass, and disappear;
This mimic scene, where each man plays a part
Oft to disguise the language of the heart,

To tell of deep-felt sorrow when 'tis glad,

Or present pleasure, though its thoughts be sad.
Nay! say not laughter shews that peace dwells there,(40)

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)
But with the wiser few thy vigil kept;

That when the cry shall be to ope the gate,

The Bridegroom comes! it may not be too late.
But that thou watchest, well prepar'd to trim

Thy furnish'd lamp, and to go in with him.
Such shall be bless'd, (42) his clear and steady light,
Before the Lord shall surely burn more bright;
For oil of gladness is prepar'd for 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,
So shall he pass, nor live out half his days :-
Pass as the shuttle flies,(43) and none will know
Where he has dwelt, his goings to and fro.
Yea! his ungodly lamp shall faintly fling(44)
But a brief date its wayward glimmering ;
The flick'ring flame shall shed a partial ray,
Then, sinking in the socket, die away.

The Lord hath said it,(45) can He not fulfil
What hath been thus pronounc'd to be His will?
Hath His arm ever fail'd when stretched forth,
That mortal man might dare abide His wrath?
Say, was it so when Korah's impious crowd
Against His chosen servants murmur'd loud ;

(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
With Him, or sink into the pit alive?

Did Pharaoh and his impious hosts withstand
The vengeance of the Lord's uplifted hand?
Or was it that the sea's rude surges (47) bore
Their dead and countless bodies to the shore?
Witness Gomorrah !(49) Sodom tell thy woe,

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,
Amid the sounds of feasting and of mirth;
Thou wert well steep'd in sin ere vengeance fell,
“Virtue had fled thee, mercy sigh'd Farewell ;”
"Outcast of earth, and reprobate of heaven,"
Thy fate was seal'd, the final sentence given,
As the destroying angel quick was sent,
Who left thee but a blasted monument.

There was a voice then heard to intercede(50)

With God, to stay the horrors of that deed;
'Twas Abraham's pray'r, that if it yet might be,
His Lord would mitigate the sad decree,

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.