around him, and the animals were gamboling before him, and the gleaming light was illuminating his lofty brow, and pouring its softest radiance over the whole circumference of beauty and enchantment, "I am monarch of all I survey, My right there is none to dispute." How many looked up with kindling emotions of envy at one who was thus pacing the very summit of earthly enjoyment! The poor, wretched labourer, whose feebleness scarcely allowed him to endure the weariness of his way, bending beneath the weight of his burden, and the greater oppression of miserable decrepitude, seemed to heave a sigh of deep sadness at the melancholy contrast of his own condition; and to be ready to burst forth in the language of impassioned complaint at the unequal distribution of good and evil. Ah! he need not have done so: for while he looked upon the titled possessor of this domain," clothed in purple and fine linen," he beheld-full in the blaze of day, and in the centre of inconceivable magnificencea LUNATIC!! WISHES. BY L. E. L. 1 Ir was a summer night, Flashed in its splendour by. That mine might be the same. It left its native sky, And when it touched the earth, There rose a pillar of fire, As 'twere a spirit's birth; And stronger grew my wish, Till as I passed next day, Where fell that radiant light, But blackened ashes lay, The forest oak was sear, The grass had lost its green; Reproof!-how could I wish Such course for me had been. 2 It was one summer night I sailed on the wide sea far, And our pilot and our hope Was the gleam of one pale star. It had risen unmarked, what time The red sun touched the brine; But a thousand rich clouds shone, And it won no gaze of mine. Now eve after eve I watched That sweet star's guiding light; And my heart learnt a meeker lesson From the quiet presence of night; And such I said be my fateA calm and a lowly one, But passed in blessing and peace, As that fair star has done. Oh! what is the brightest hour That ever to earth was given, To the beauty of that mild light, Which is direct from heaven. MESSIAH'S ADVENT. "He came unto his own, and his own received him not." ST. JOHN i. 11. He came not in his people's day Of miracle and might, When awe-struck nations owned their sway, The elements of earth and heaven, Pillar and cloud Jehovah gave, But judgment was with mercy blent- Behold them-pilgrim tribes no more- From age to age a favoured line Of mighty kings, and seers divine, A temple and a throne : Not then, but in their hour of shame, Woe, want, and weakness-then "He came." Not in the earthquake's rending force, Not in the blasting fire, Not in the strong wind's rushing course, As GOD, his might and ire:- Eternal, undefiled; Redeemer, Prophet, Priest, and King Yet came he as a child! And Zion's favoured eye grown dim, Knew not her promised Lord in Him, The lowly and the mild! She saw the manger, and the tree, And scornful cried-" Can this be He!" M. |