LXX.

THE MILLENNIUM.

WHAT a bright and bleffed world

This groaning earth of ours will be, When from its throne the tempter hurled,

Shall leave it all, O Lord, to Thee!

But brighter far that world above,
When we, as we are known, fhall know;
And in the fweet embrace of love,
Reign o'er this ranfom'd earth below,

O bleffed Lord! with weeping eyes,
That blissful hour we wait to fee;
While every worm or leaf that dies,
Tells of the curfe and calls for Thee.

Come, Saviour, then o'er all below,
Shine brightly from Thy throne above;
Bid Heaven and Earth Thy glory know,
And all creation feel Thy love.

SIR E. DENNY.

LXXI.

THE MILLENNIUM.

HE groans of Nature in this nether world,

Which Heaven has heard for ages, have an end,

Foretold by prophets, and by poets

fung,

Whofe fire was kindled at the prophets' lamp;
The time of reft, the promised Sabbath, comes.
Six thousand years of forrow have well-nigh
Fulfill'd their tardy and difaftrous course
Over a finful world; and what remains
Of this tempeftuous ftate of human things,
Is merely as the working of a fea

Before a calm, that rocks itself to reft:

For He, whofe car the winds are, and the clouds
The duft that waits upon His fultry march,
When fin hath moved Him, and His wrath is hot,
Shall vifit earth in mercy; fhall defcend
Propitious in His chariot paved with love;
And what His ftorms have blafted and defaced
For man's revolt, fhall with a smile repair.

Cowper.

P

LXXII.

Wake up

HEAVEN.

IS the foft hour of Eve,-the fummer's fun

Hath funk in fmiling lovelinefs to

reft;

His latest beams, fast fading one by one,

a crimson glory in the Weft;

As if through openings in its portals riven,

A gleam of bursting blifs had won its way from Heaven.

At fuch an hour as this, the penfive foul, Entranced in thought, unfolds for flight fublime Her immaterial wings, and, fpurning all

The narrow boundaries of space and time, Feels that immortal ftrength which God has given, And knows her true relationship with Heaven.

Oh! yes-despite these bonds that drag him down, Man is a noble creature; not from earth

Its high extraction doth his spirit own,

Defigned from Heaven, which hath from Heaven its birth;

Through all the fhadowing folds of earth we fee
The ftamp of life divine and immortality.

Behold all nature's works-above--abroad.
Yon orb, the spreading skies, and each fair star,
In that bright zone wherewith the hand of God
Hath girdled round the universe afar-

Bright characters they are infcribed on high,
To teach fin-blinded man that he fhall never die!

For why was all this tracery of love

Hung round the earth? thofe ever-during fires, That fed with light from Paradise above

Woo the rapt spirit to fublime defires?

What mean they all, if this brief earthly span
Be all that fpirit's life, and death the end of man?

There is there is a world beyond the sky!

Thy facred word, O God! reveals to man, Through all the mazes of mortality,

The path to Heaven, and shows a wondrous plan, Whereby the foul, of Faith and Hope poffeft,

May reach in peace at length its home of quiet reft.

LXXIII.

J. E. P.

HEAVEN.

SHINE in the light of God,

His likeness ftamps my brow;

Through the shadow of death my feet have trod,

And I reft in glory now.

No breaking heart is here,

No keen and thrilling pain;

No wafted cheek, where the frequent tear Hath rolled and left its stain.

I have found the joys of Heaven;
I am one of the fainted band;

To my head a crown of gold is given,
And a harp is in my hand.

I have learnt the fong they fing,
Whom Jefus hath set free;

And the glorious walls of Heaven still ring
With my new-born melody.

No fin-no grief—no pain—

Safe in my happy home;

My fears all fled, my doubts all slain,

My hour of triumph come.

O Friends of mortal years!

The trufted and the true;

Ye are walking still in the valley of tears,

But I wait to welcome you.

Do I forget? Oh no—

For memory's golden chain

Shall bind my heart to the faints below,

Till they meet to touch again.

Each link is ftrong and bright,
And love's electric flame

Flows freely down, like a river of light,

To the world from whence they came.