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the clouds part and unveil its ice-ribbed cones in dazzling glory a sight at which the devout Armenian bares his head, kneels down, and prays; so great is its magnificence. No mortal foot has ever reached its inaccessible crown. The tiger alone has made his lair in its rocks. It was there the ark rested; thence flew the unreturning raven; thither came back the dove with its branch of olive: there Noah, and his little family of seven persons, built his altar and offered his sacrifice of praise above the ruin and wreck of a world engulfed; and while adown its steeps the second father of mankind, his head white with the snows of six centuries, took his sad way, above him spanning the broad arch of heaven and touching the smiling earth, now purged from every stain, the bright bow shone in the retiring clouds, the pledge of God's love, which should "deliver His elect from wrath, receive them into the ark of CHRIST's Church, and being steadfast in faith, joyful through hope, and rooted in charity, pass them across the waves of this troublesome world, that finally they may come to the land of everlasting life."

Surrounded by a girdle of hills, of a rocky limestone, steep on every side but towards the north, undulating into slopes and dells, from the southward miles off may be recognized the Mount MORIAH; so plain and distinct that the Hebrew called it by this title the Hill of Vision. On it more than 4,000 years ago, yet three days' journey distant, were fixed the eyes of a little company, two young men attending an aged patriarch riding on an ass, leading a boy, the hope of his old age, given to him, when he had only looked to be gathered to his fathers, and leave unfulfilled the glorious promise that his seed should be as the stars of heaven or the sand on the sea-shore. Then the lad bare up the cleft wood for an offering, and the father the fire and knife of sacrifice; and the child won

dered to see no lamb: but meekly suffered himself to be bound, and to be laid on the altar, and to die, if so his father would: till a voice spake from heaven in benediction on him that had not withheld his son, his only son, from his GOD, and proclaimed that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed. On that hill, (eight hundred years had passed away,) a royal penitent was kneeling, there supplicating for his city stricken with consuming pestilence for his sin: and then adoring the GOD of mercy, Who bade the destroying angel sheathe his sword, at the prayer of him, the sweet Psalmist of Israel, the descendant of Abraham, the friend of GOD; and from whose lineage should be born the Consolation of Israel. There rose like a dream the gorgeous Temple of Solomon, whose surpassing grandeur and sumptuous ornaments were forgotten at the remembrance of the symbol of the in-dwelling Deity, Who tabernacled between the Cherubim. There on the ruins of that first Sanctuary, arose another building, but less fair; and when the tearful children of the restored Captivity lamented its inferior splendour, the voice of Haggai proclaimed its greater glory, for the Desire of all nations, whose day holy Abraham and righteous David desired to see, should come and walk in its sacred courts. In vain He came; in vain implored His people to hear His glad tidings: He came and went back to His eternal majesty on high: and seventy years after His denial and rejection, armies were seen warring in the heavens above, signs and dreadful portents stood forth, the sound as of a departing host passed across its desecrated threshold, the mighty gates closed behind the unseen Guardians' march, and their dread last words were heard by the crouching priest. "Let us depart, for God has forsaken Zion." That night the armed heel of the Roman rang through the courts,

deep with streams of blood; that night, despite the commands of Titus, fire was cast upon the vast building, and ere the ploughshare tore up its foundation stones, it shone out once more high above the fallen City it had so long hallowed, a Temple worthy of eternity, that no mortal might destroy, wrapped in a shroud of flame.

Along the northern boundaries of Moab stretch the rugged chain of the ABARIM, those frightful precipitous rocks, with black chasms dark as night, cast their shadows on the face of the sea of desolation, dead and stagnant as a lake of molten lead. Through the deep passes of NEBO which give the mountains their name, the wandering Israelites marched into Canaan. Like a straight wall they rise, in a course so feebly dented that the painter's hand need but tremble in the limning of the line to mark their outline. Not a blade of grass, not a bird springs amid those lonely crags: mute as if with recent terror, beneath the burning sun, and in view of the barren coasts of the waters that roll above the cities of the plain -silent in solitude, as though they feared again to hear the sound of the rushing storm of brimstone and fire that laid bare the once fertile plains. Having sung his sweet dying hymn, and delivered his last charge to Joshua, the captain of the LORD's armies, and prophesied the future fortunes of the people he had led so long, foreknowing the time of his departure, amid the crowds of mourning Israel weeping that they should see his face no more, as his saintly brother on HUR, Moses went up to those sad hills. From their tops, the meekest of men was shown by his Eternal Guide, in visions of GOD, the blessed land of promise, from balmy Gilead to the utmost sea, an ample prospect stretching out beneath him, lay there beyond, the future Kingdom of the Most High, unswayed by earthly sovereign; to be inhabited by the tented tribes

below, whose white pavilions showed but as numerous as the flocks of Jethro his father-in-law, folded beneath Horeb. And was he, who withstood Pharaoh to the face, and invoked the tenfold judgments on Egypt; whose rod divided the Red Sea into a passage between high crystal walls; smote streams from stony rock, and brought down the manna-rain, the very food of angels; who thrice saw the glory of GoD without dying, from the burning bush delegated to lead Israel through the desert; on SINAI, among lightnings and thunderings receiving the Tables of the law engraved with the fingers of the immortal hand; and in the cloud communed with JEHOVAH proclaiming Himself by His sweetest attribute and name of Love ;—was he, so highly favoured, to see that excellent sight, and yet never go in thither? There he tarried till there fell on him, borne to the better land,

"A death like sleep,

A gentle wafting to immortality."

In the calm valley of Beth-peor, before his eye was dim, or his natural force abated, far above the voice of lamentation that so sadly bewailed him that he should return no more, with a grace unknown to other of the sons of man, sepulchred by no human hand, the LORD Himself buried there His gentle servant. . .

So shall they, who have lived to GOD, the nearer they draw to the hour of their rest, be enlightened with the consolations of His presence, as being then even almost within His sight.

M. W.

(To be continued.)

140

MONTGOMERY'S POEMS.

IN continuation of our review of this work, we extract the following from the "Christian Life," as being a fair specimen of the author's powers as a poet:

"MIND OF LITTLE CHIldren.

"Men call it wisdom, when they grow
Less and less like a child :

But let the harsh and haughty know,

Such wisdom is defiled.

The cold perfection of a cautious man,

Who gains by cunning,—what the serpent can!

"He, Whose all-meas'ring soul perceived
The heights and depths of mind,

A nobler creed would have believed

When present with mankind:

Who said, with infancy beside His knee,
'He that is greatest, like a child must be.'

"Heaven to a child comes nearer far

Than in maturer age,

When passion's brunt, and blighting war
Their ceaseless battle wage

Against those young simplicities, which dwell
Deep in the bosom, like a guardian-spell.

"Oh! for a reverential eye

To childhood which pertains,

That sees religion in the sky,

And poetry in plains;

To whom a rainbow like a rapture glows,

And all is marvel which th' Almighty shows.

"Blest age of wonder! when a flower,

A blossom, fruit, or tree,

Gives a new zest to each new hour

Which gladdens home with glee;
When like a lisping stream life rolls along
In happy murmurs of unconscious song.

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