THE law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. GALATIANS, iii, 24.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. Re. MANS, X, 4.
The law is holy; and the commandment holy, and just, and good. ROMANS, vii, 12.
THOSE laws which from Mount Sinai
Jehovah, clothed with terrors, while thick clouds
And darkness wrapt him round, pronounced, in sounds
Which chilled the hearts of those we heard, and froze
Their very blood. Beneath His awful feet
Earth trembled, and the lofty mountain shook;
Hoarse thunder growled, and livid lightnings flashed,
While sounds of horror and distress amid
The howling wilderness were heard.
FROM Sinai's top Jehovah gave the law,
Life for obedience, death for every flaw.
When the great Sovereign would His will express,
He gives a perfect rule, what can He less?
And guards it with a sanction as severe
As vengeance can inflict, or sinners fear:
Else His own glorious rights He would disclaim,
And man might safely trifle with His name.
He bids him glow with unremitting love
To all on earth, and to Himself above
Condemns the injurious deed, the slanderous tongue,
The thought that meditates a brother's wrong;
Brings not alone the more conspicuous part-
His conduct to the test, but tries his heart.
THE mountain rocked round Sinai's trembling sides;
In gloomy spires the dreadful smoke arose;
Angelic trumpets pierced the ethereal vault;
Wide-echoing thunder rent the conscious air;
Fierce lightning shot its terrors through the sky;
All nature spake, and with convulsive shock
Gave awful proof of the descending God.
GOD from the Mount of Sinai, whose grey top
Shall tremble, He descending, will Himself,
In thunder, lightning, and loud tempest's sound,
Ordain them laws; part such as appertain
To civil justice, part religious rites.
Of sacrifice, informing them by types.
And shadows, of that destined Seed to bruise
The serpent, by what means He shall achieve
Mankind's deliverance. But the voice of God
To mortal ear is dreadful! They beseech
That Moses might repeat to them His will,
And terror cease. He grants what they besought,
Instructed that to God is no access
Without Mediator, whose high office now
Moses in figure bears, to introduce
One greater, of whose day he shall foretell.
SLANDER-FALSEHOOD-SOPHISTRY.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Exodus, xx, 16.
Lying lips are abomination to the Lord. PROVERBS, Xii, 22.
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and ight for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter. ISAIAII, v, 20.
Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue
Out-venoms all the worms of Nile; whose breath
Rides on the posting wind, and doth belie
All corners of the world; kings, queens, and states,
Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave,
The viperous slander enters.
THE hint malevolent, the look oblique,
The obvious satire, or implied dislike,
The sneer equivocal, the harsh reply,
And all the cruel language of the eye;
The artful injury, whose venomed dart
Scarce wounds the hearing, while it stabs the heart;
The guarded phrase, whose meaning kills.
Be tortured with the rack of his own frame;
For he that holds no faith, shall find no trust,
But, sowing wrong, is sure to reap the same.
LYING's a certain mark of cowardice:
And when the tongue forgets its honesty,
The heart and hand may drop their functions too,
And nothing worthy be resolved or done.
WOE unto those that countenance a sin,
Siding with vice that it may credit win,
By their unhallowed vote; that do benight
The truth with error, putting dark for light,
And light for dark; that call an evil good,
And would by vice have virtue understood.
BISHOP KING.
SOPHISTRY cleaves close to and protects
Sin's rotten trunk, concealing its defects:
Mortals, whose pleasures are their only care,
First wish to be imposed on, and then are;
And lest the fulsome artifice should fail,
Themselves will hide its coarseness with a veil.
Not more industrious are the just and true
To give to virtue what is virtue's due-
The praise of wisdom, comeliness, and worth,
And call her charms to public notice forth
Than vice's mean and disingenuous race
To hide the shocking features of her face.
Her form with dress and lotion they repair;
Then kiss their idol, and pronounce her fair.
AND God said to Solomon, Because this was in thy heart, and thou hast not asked riches, wealth, or honour, nor the life of thine enemies, neither yet hast asked long life; but hast asked wisdom and knowledge for thyself that thou mayest judge iny people, over whom I have made thee king:
Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee; and I will give thee riches, and wealth, and honour, such as none of the kings have had that have been before thee, neither shall there any after thee have the like. II. CHRONICLES, i, 11, 12.
The Almighty chose among the sons of men,
To dedicate a temple to His name,
Where He, whose awful presence fills the vast
Immensity of space, who makes the clouds
His chariot, rides sublime the whirlwind's wing,
And guides the raging storm, would deign to dwell,
And make His presence known. The exalted task
Thy wisdom worthily performed.
IN wealth, in power, tranquillity, and fame,
His mightier son, high-favoured Solomon,
Serene in strength, and dreadful without war,
Reigns jubilant: in knowledge peerless hc,
With proverb, meditation, holy song,
Exalts the soul; while o'er his laws preside
Truth uncorrupt, integrity severe,
By keen discernment led. With lustrous train
See Sheba's queen, to prove his wisdom come,
And kings from every realm, admiring, hear
His varied eloquence; admiring, view
Magnificence and regal state profuse
Beyond compare.
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