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In heaven; and He who sits upon the throne
In human form, with mediatorial power,
Remembers Calvary, and hails the hour
When, by the Almighty Father's high decree,
The utmost North to Him shall bow the knee.
Some won by love, from the wild savage race,
Shall kiss the conquering sceptre of His grace.
Then to His eye, whose instant glance pervades
Heaven's heights, earth's circle, hell's profoundest shades,
Is there a group more happy than those three
Night-watching pilgrims on the lonely sea?
Or to His ear, that gathers, in one sound,
The voices of adoring worlds around,
Comes there a breath of more delightful praise,
Than the faint notes His poor disciples raise,
Ere on the treacherous main they sink to rest,
Secure, as leaning on their Master's breast?

They sleep but memory wakes; and dreams array Night in a lively masquerade of day;

The land they seek, the land they leave behind,
Meet on mid-ocean in the plastic mind;

One brings forsaken home and friends so nigh,
That tears in slumber swell the unconscious eye;
The other opens, with prophetic view,

Perils which e'en their fathers never knew

(Though schooled by suffering, long inured to toil, Outcasts and exiles from their native soil);

Strange scenes; strange men; untold, untried distress;
Pain, hardships, famine, cold, and nakedness;
Diseases; death in every hideous form,

On shore, at sea, by fire, by flood, by storm;
Wild beasts, and wilder men,-unmoved with fear,

Health, comfort, safety, life, they count not dear,
May they but hope a Saviour's love to show,
To God's redeemed-saved from eternal woe:
Nor will they faint, nor can they strive in vain,
Since thus to live is Christ, to die is gain.

"Tis morn; the bathing moon her lustre shrouds;
Wide o'er the east impends an arch of clouds,
That spans the ocean; while the infant dawn
Peeps through the portal o'er the liquid lawn,
That ruffled by an April gale appears,

Between the gloom and splendour of the spheres,
Dark purple as the moorland heath-when rain
Hangs in low vapours o'er the autumnal plain :
Till the full sun, resurgent from the flood,
Looks on the waves, and turns them into blood;
But quickly kindling, as his beams aspire,
The lambent billows play in forms of fire.
Where is the vessel? Shining through the light,
Like the white sea-fowl's horizontal flight,

Yonder she wings, and skims, and cleaves her way
Through refluent foam and iridescent spray.

J. MONTGOMERY.

66

SONGS OF PRAISE.

Glory to God in the highest."— Luke, ii. 14.

SONGS of praise the angels sang,
Heaven with hallelujahs rang,
When Jehovah's work begun,
When He spake, and it was done.

Songs of praise awoke the morn

When the "Prince of Peace" was born, .

Songs of praise arose, when He

Captive led captivity.

Heaven and earth must pass away;
Songs of praise shall crown that day;
God will make new heavens and earth,
Songs of praise shall hail their birth.

And shall man alone be dumb,
Till that glorious kingdom come?
No! the Church delights to raise
Psalms, and hymns, and songs of praise.

Saints below, with heart and voice,
Still in songs of praise rejoice;
Learning here, by faith and love,
Songs of praise to sing above.

Borne upon their latest breath,
Songs of praise shall conquer death;
Then, amidst eternal joy,

Songs of praise their powers employ.

J. MONTGOMERY.

THE CHRISTIAN ISRAEL.

THUS far on life's perplexing path,
Thus far, thou, Lord, our steps hast led,
Safe from the world's pursuing wrath,
Unharmed, though floods hung o'er our head;
Here then, we pause, look back, adore,
Like ransomed Israel from the shore.

Strangers and pilgrims here below,
As all our fathers in their day,
We to a land of promise go,
Lord! by thine own appointed way:
Still guide, illumine, cheer our flight,
In cloud by day, in fire by night.

Protect us through this wilderness,
From serpent plague, and hostile rage;
With bread from heaven our table bless,
With living streams our thirst assuage;
Nor let our rebel hearts repine,
Or follow any voice but thine.

Thy presence with us, move or rest;
And as the eagle o'er her brood
Flutters her pinions, stirs the nest,
Covers, defends, provides them food,
Bears on her wings, instructs to fly;
Thus, thus, prepare us for the sky.

When we have numbered all our years,
And stand at length on Jordan's brink,
Though the flesh fail with human fears,
Oh! let not then the spirit shrink,

But strong in faith, and hope, and love,
Plunge through the stream, to rise above.
J. MONTGOMERY.

NATURE.

THE God of nature and of grace
In all His works appears;
His goodness through the earth we trace,
His grandeur in the spheres.

Behold this fair and fertile globe,
By Him in wisdom planned;
'Twas He who girded like a robe
The ocean round the land.

Lift to the firmament your eye,
Thither His path pursue;
His glory, boundless as the sky,
O'erwhelms the wondering view.

He bows the heavens-the mountains stand

A highway for their God;

He walks amidst the desert land,

"Tis Eden where He trod.

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