as men; for faith is the soul of religion, and works the body.
Envy, if surrounded on all sides by the brightness of another's prosperity, like the scorpion confined within a circle of fire, will sting itself to death.
Yonder, upon a throne made of the affections of the planters, in the face of an indignant nation, and of an offended God, sits Slavery, horrible as a hag of hell : her face is brass-her heart is stone-her hand is iron, with which she wrings from the multiplied sufferings and labours of the poor blacks, the wealth by which she is clothed in purple and fine linen, and fareth sumptuously every day; watching, with unslumbering jealousy, every ray that would enlighten the darkness of her kingdom, and frowning indignantly on every finger that would disturb the stability of her throne.-— T. Macconnell.
ON THE WONDERS OF REDEMPTION,
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 sevenfold 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 rous'd such vengeance? which such love in-
flam'd?
(O'er guilt how mountainous!) with out-stretch'd arms,
Stern Justice and soft-smiling Love, embrace,
Supporting, in full majesty, thy throne,
When seem'd its majesty to need support,
Or that, or man, inevitably lost.
What, but the fathomless of thought divine,
Could labour such expedient from despair,
And rescue both! both rescue! both exalt!
O 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 !
Ye brainless wits! ye baptized infidels !
Ye worse for mending! washed to fouler stains!
The ransom was paid down; the fund of heaven,
Heaven's inexhaustible exhausted fund,
Amazing and amaz'd, pour'd forth the price,
All price beyond; though curious to compute,
Archangels fail'd to cast the mighty sum:
Its value vast ungrasp'd by minds create,
For ever hides, and glows, in the Supreme.
And was the ransom paid? It was: and paid
(What can exalt the bounty more?) for you.
The sun beheld it-no, the shocking scene
Drove back his chariot; midnight veil'd his face;
Not such as this; not such as Nature makes;
A midnight, Nature shudder'd to behold;
A midnight new! a dread eclipse (without
Opposing spheres) from her Creator's frown!
Sun! didst thou fly thy Maker's pain? or start
At the enormous load of human guilt,
Which bow'd his blessed head; o'erwhelm'd his cross,
Made groan the centre, burst earth's marble womb,
With pangs, strange pangs! deliver'd of her dead?
Hell howl'd; and Heaven that hour let fall a tear;
Heaven wept, that man might smile! Heaven bled,
that man
Ånd is devotion virtue? 'tis compell'd;
What heart of stone, but glows at thoughts like these?
Such contemplations mount us; and should mount
The mind still higher; nor ever glance on man,
Unraptur'd, uninflam'd.-Where roll my thoughts,
To rest from wonders; other wonders rise;
And strike where'er they roll: my soul is caught:
Heaven's sovereign blessings, clust'ring from the cross,
Rush on her, in a throng, and close her round,
The prisoner of amaze !-In his blest life
I see the path, and in his death the price,
And in his great ascent, the proof supreme
Of immortality.-And did he rise?
Hear, O ye nations! hear it, O ye dead!
He rose! he rose ! he burst the bars of death.
The theme, the joy, how then shall man sustain ?
Oh the burst gates! crush'd sting! demolish'd throne!
Last gasp of vanquish'd Death! Shout, earth and
This sum of good to man: whose nature, then,
Took wing, and mounted with him from the tomb!
Then, then I rose; then, first, humanity
Triumphant pass'd the crystal ports of light,
(Stupendous guest!) and seiz'd eternal youth;
Seiz'd in our name. E'er since, 'tis blasphemous
To call man mortal. Man's mortality
Was then transferr'd to death; and heaven's duration
Unalienably seal'd to this frail frame,
This child of dust. Man, all immortal! hail!
Hail, Heaven! all lavish of strange gifts to man!
Thine all the glory; man's the boundless bliss!
CHARITY AND RELIGION.
ALL hail! benignant name, sweet Charity!
So prompt to pity-eager to supply,
Blest emanation of the heavenly mind,
Friend of the world and parent of mankind!
That pines in dungeons-anxious looks around,
And drops the lucid tear where woes abound,
Nor tears alone-O! dear to man and God,
Let every breast provide thee an abode,
Let every pulse beat high with thee-and thrill
Pervade each soul and all intentions fill,
Let thy kind beams on humble peasants shine,
Be thine to pity-to relieve be thine!
And thou, Religion! soul transforming flame, Let earth thy power-let heav'n thy praise proclaim)
Whoe'er's possessed of thee could wish no more,
And without thee a Cræsus must be poor.
Come then, Religion! and the toiling hind
Shall more than bread in thine embraces find;
Thy precious balm distill'd upon his heart,
His wants subside-his sorrows all depart;
He sees his storm-beat cottage proudly rise,
More than a palace-half a paradise!
Lo! he who erst repos'd his weary head,
A stone his pillow-the cold ground his bed,
When to his leaping heart thy joys were giv❜n,
Exclaim'd with rapture 'Tis the gate of heav'n.
SWEET peace, where dost thou dwell? I humbly crave,
Let me once know;
I sought thee in a secret cave,
And ask'd if peace were there:
A hollow wind did seem to answer, no;
Go, seek elsewhere.
I did; and going, did a rainbow note:
Surely, thought I,
This is the lace of peace's coat:
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