Rather would passion hear, would pride obey,
Would fierce revenge his deadly weapon stay;
Would stern ambition check his ruthless course,
Which covets continents, nor owns remorse;
Would vile cupidity, and avarice base,-
Those whips and scorpions of our hapless race;
Those vampires of humanity, that sup

On mortal woe, and drain its blood-filled cup !-
Oh, would they yield to pity's deep-wrung cry,
Or mark the flame-writ warning-scroll, on high!
Then, then, what mighty store of human good
And happiness would 'scape destruction's flood;
What lacerations of the soul be spared;

What griefs, to hearts for peace and joy prepared;
What seas of tears, what fields of bleaching bones;
What diapason deep of woe-wrung groans;

What deeds of guilt and shame, which good men mourn,
But base and vile to pelf or pastime turn;

Which modesty and pity dare not tell;

But raise the gloat of fiends, and shouts of hell!

It may not be! vain wish; vain hope! A dream, That melts and fades before the morning beam! Yet, what frail man, whom sins and lusts deform, Cannot, or will not do, God can perform !— Yes, there shall come a time,-hasten, great Lord Of peace, the eternal promise of Thy Word; (Nor, now, perchance remote !) let that blest morn Upon Thy blighted, seared, creation dawn!

Bring, bring that hour, which, with the vision fired, Bards', saints', and prophets' inmost soul desired; That glad Millenial Jubilee, those years,

Rich harvest of our long-sown griefs and tears;
When this soiled earth, (yet work, once how divine!)
Shall with a renovated glory shine;

Its copious products from a genial soil
Yielded, not wrung with life-exhausting toil;
Effaced the sin-inflicted blight and stain,
And Eden's bloom and verdure come again.
Yes, e'en Thy heaven shall glow with brighter hue,
More boon the teeming shower, more soft the dew;
No noxious vapours its fair face deform,
No blasting beams, no devastating storm.
Then Thou thy sorrowing creatures' cry wilt hear,
Then dry, as only Thou canst dry, their tear;
Brother no more shall thirst for brother's blood,
Ambition, lust of conquest, be subdued;
Pride, wrath, revenge, cupidity, be stayed,
The demons of man's strife in chains be laid;
Then Peace, Thy white-robed herald, shall descend,
Bid war, invasions, rapine, havoc, end;
This sin-polluted earth be holy ground,
And all but Heaven's eternal joys be found!

Brief be the record now of what ensued,
The course that Israel's severed state pursued,
Its disobedience, idol-rites, and blood,
Till overwhelmed and sunk in ruin's flood.

Yet, say we, severance did it? Heaven's own hand
Sanctioned and owned the sundering of the land;
The breach and rupture had a righteous cause,
Abuse of regal powers, stretched, broken laws;
And-more-must in those chastisements be sought,
Which faults ancestral on the nation brought.
The kingly Jeroboam, called to sway

By Heaven, had he Heaven's voice but learnt t' obey,
Had to his children's children left a name,
Imperishable as his kingdom's fame.

But sinful polity, and idol-rite,

Soon his bright prospects clothed with thickest night, The people's alienation from his sway,

Fearing, while to their temple they a way

Could, through his rival's hated kingdom, find,
And to Jehovah's presence there enshrined;
In fatal hour a fatal step he took,

Which to its base his new-formed empire shook.
Expediency is law to worldly eyes,

And for its ends they heavenly laws despise ;
He broke that greatest law, that high command,
Which the almighty Lawgiver's own hand
On the Eternal Tables traced; he tore
The solemn bond which his own signet bore;
The covenant that Jehovah made to bind
His people to Himself, gave to the wind;
Dared from His altar His great name t'efface,
And planted a base idol in its place!

'Twas then, affronted, grieved, but not in haste,
The sacred Presence from the nation passed.
First, from the solemn seat, whence faithful vows
Pierced the far heavens, th' offended Glory rose;
Then, on the mighty threshold took its place,
Yet with a lingering, hesitating pace;
As watching, if contrition might delay
The progress, and its course relenting stay :-
Vain was the watch, the course relenting vain,
Israel will not her PRESENT GOD retain !
She flings the tutelary sign away;

She basks no longer in the favouring ray;
But, plunged in guilt and obduracy's night,
The sacred Symbol takes its everlasting flight!

Soon retribution came. The Prophet's word
The dread indictment solemnly preferred,
And judgment gave-destruction to his race,
And to his people ruin and disgrace.

Yet more; their short-lived monarchy o'erthrown,
Their course of sin and disobedience run,
The land begirt by fierce marauding foes,

A stern captivity should crown their woes :
Their soul should grind in chains, in toil, in grief;
No wished-for morning's ray bring kind relief;
Nor evening's shadows, calling all to rest,
Yield solace to their wounded, home-sick breast.
Then-cast Jehovah's gentle rule aside,
His laws rejected, and His threats defied;

They should, at length, His righteous judgments learn, And His mild sway from heathen yokes discern.

But one there was included in the doom, Already hasting to an early tomb,The young Abijah! In the opening day Of life, had sickness marked him for its prey; And bade his glittering heritage, the Crown, So lately won, so briefly owned, lay down. Yet, was it wrath that urged the Sovereign Will, In him-unshared the guilt-thus to fulfil The sentence 'gainst the guilty sire? Shall He, The Judge of all the earth, not righteous be? Not with severity commingle love? Not goodness in youth's early bloom approve ? Yes; good He saw in him; but in the doom Which called him to a young and hope-lit tomb, Took him from coming ill; and in his eyes, For mighty compensation, set the prize, Of spirits early ripened for the skies. Thus, while within sick walls, the royal boy Saw pass away health, hope, and worldly joy; In pallor, pain, in langour, weariness, Life's little sand-falls dropping less and less; While earth's concernments grew to things of nought, And the Great Future filled his solemn thought ;(His only grief, Heaven's altars overthrown,

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And who it was, that mournful deed had done ;)