On either wing their fiery coursers check
The parch'd and sinewy sons of Amalek :
While close behind, inured to feast on blood,
Deck'd in Behemoth's spoils, the tall Shangalla strode.
'Mid blazing helms and bucklers rough with gold
Saw ye how swift the scythed chariots roll❜d?

Lo, these are they whom, lords of Afric's fates,
Old Thebes hath pour'd through all her hundred gates
Mother of armies !-How the emeralds glow'd,

Where, flush'd with power and vengeance, Pharaoh rode!
And stoled in white, those brazen wheels before,
Osiris' ark his swarthy wizards bore;

And still responsive to the trumpet's cry

The priestly sistrum murmur'd—Victory !——

Why swell these shouts that rend the desert's gloom?
Whom come ye forth to combat ?—warriors, whom ?—
These flocks and herds-this faint and weary train-
Red from the scourge and recent from the chain ?
God of the poor, the poor and friendless save!
Giver and Lord of freedom, help the slave!—
North, south, and west, the sandy whirlwinds fly,
The circling horns of Egypt's chivalry.

On earth's last margin throng the weeping train :
Their cloudy guide moves on:- "And must we swim the main?”
'Mid the light spray their snorting camels stood,

Nor bathed a fetlock in the nauseous flood

He comes-their leader comes !-the man of God
O'er the wide waters lifts his mighty rod,
And onward treads-The circling waves retreat,
In hoarse deep murmurs, from his holy feet;

And the chased surges, inly roaring, show
The hard wet sand, and coral hills below.

With limbs that falter, and with hearts that swell,
Down, down they pass-a steep and slippery dell-
Around them rise, in pristine chaos hurl'd,

The ancient rocks, the secrets of the world;
And flowers that blush beneath the ocean green,
And caves, the sea-calves' low-roof'd haunt are seen.
Down, safely down the narrow pass they tread;
The beetling waters storm above their head:
While far behind retires the sinking day,
And fades on Edom's hills its latest ray.

Yet not from Israel fled the friendly light,

Or dark to them, or cheerless came the night.
Still in their van, along that dreadful road,
Blazed broad and fierce the brandish'd torch of God.
Its meteor glare a tenfold lustre gave

On the long mirror of the rosy wave:

While its blest beams a sunlike heat supply,
Warm every cheek, and dance in every eye—
To them alone-for Misraim's wizard train
Invoke for light their monster-gods in vain :
Clouds heap'd on clouds their struggling sight confine,
And tenfold darkness broods above their line.
Yet on they fare by reckless vengeance led,

And range unconscious through the ocean's bed:

Till midway now-that strange and fiery form
Show'd his dread visage lightening through the storm;
With withering splendour blasted all their might,

And break their chariot-wheels, and marr'd their coursers' flight.

Fly, Misraim, fly!"-The ravenous floods they see, And, fiercer than the floods, the Deity.

Fly, Misraim, fly!"-From Edom's coral strand
Again the prophet stretch'd his dreadful wand :—
With one wild crash the thundering waters sweep,
And all is waves—a dark and lonely deep-
Yet o'er those lonely waves such murmurs past,
As mortal wailing swell'd the nightly blast:
And strange and sad the whispering breezes bore
The groans of Egypt to Arabia's shore.

Oh! welcome came the morn, where Israel stood
In trustless wonder by th' avenging flood!
Oh! welcome came the cheerful morn, to show
The drifted wreck of Zoan's pride below;
The mangled limbs of men-the broken car-
A few sad relics of a nation's war:
Alas, how few !—Then, soft as Elim's well,
The precious tears of new-born freedom fell.
And he, whose harden'd heart alike had borne
The house of bondage and th' oppressor's scorn,
The stubborn slave, by hope's new beams subdued,
In faltering accents sobb'd his gratitude-

Till kindling into warmer zeal, around

The virgin timbrel waked its silver sound:
And in fierce joy, no more by doubt supprest,

The struggling spirit throbb'd in Miriam's breast.
She, with bare arms, and fixing on the sky

The dark transparence of her lucid eye,

Pour'd on the winds of heaven her wild sweet harmony.

"Where now," she sang,

"the tall Egyptian spear? On's sun-like shield, and Zoan's chariot, where? Above their ranks the whelming waters spread. Shout, Israel, for the Lord hath triumphed !"-And every pause between as Miriam sang, From tribe to tribe the martial thunder rang, And loud and far their stormy chorus spread,"Shout, Israel, for the Lord hath triumphed!"

HYMNS.

ADVENT SUNDAY.

HOSANNA to the living Lord!
Hosanna to the incarnate Word!
To Christ, Creator, Saviour, King,
Let earth, let Heaven, Hosanna sing!

Hosanna! Lord! Hosanna in the highest!

Hosanna, Lord! Thine angels cry;
Hosanna, Lord! Thy saints reply;
Above, beneath us, and around,
The dead and living swell the sound

Hosanna! Lord! Hosanna in the highest!

Oh, Saviour! with protecting care,
Return to this Thy house of prayer!
Assembled in Thy sacred name,

Where we Thy parting promise claim!

Hosanna! Lord! Hosanna in the highest !