I ask'd my Bible, and methinks it said, 66 Time is the present hour, the past is fled : Live! live to-day! to-morrow never yet On any human being rose or set!" I ask'd old Father Time himself at last, I ask'd the mighty angel who shall stand "By heaven's great King, I swear the mystery's o'er; Time was," he cried, but Time shall be no more." 66 MARSDEN. THE TIME-PIECE. WHO is He, so swiftly flying, His career no eye can see? Who are they so early dying, From their birth they cease to be? Time:- behold his pictured face; Moments can you count their race? : Though with aspect deep dissembling, Hark! what petty pulses, beating, In the highest realms of glory, Of each little moment flown; Were the volume of a minute More of man, might we behold, Who could bear the revelation ? Who with leer malign exploring, On that record in the book, Seal'd they are, for years and ages, Till,-the earth's last circuit run, Empire changed through all its stages, Risen and set the latest sun, On the sea and on the land Shall a midnight angel stand: Stand, and while th' abysses tremble, Time himself, with all his legions, Singling out the sons of earth, With their glory or disgrace Charge their spenders face to face. Every moment of my being Then shall pass before mine eyes : -God, all searching! God all seeing! Oh! appease them, ere they rise: Warn'd, I fly, I fly to Thee; God, be merciful to me! JAMES MONTGOMERY. 66 CREATION AND REDEMPTION. 'LET there be light," were the words of creation 66 'Let there be light!"-The Great Spirit descended, And flash'd on the waves that in darkness had slept; The sun in his glory a giant ascended, 66 The dews on the earth their mild radiance wept. Let there be light!"—And the fruits and the flowers Responded in smiles to the new-lighted sky; There was scent in the gale, there was bloom in the bowers, Sweet sound for the ear, and soft hue for the eye. 66 Let there be light," were the words of salvation, When man had defeated life's object and end, Had waned from his glorious and glad elevation, Abandon'd a God, and conform'd to a fiend. "Let there be light!"-The same Spirit supernal "Let there be light!" from Gethsemane springing, H THE TRUE LIGHT. WHERE the angel's golden wings, Curtains all around were spread, Yet there shone a fairer light Than this earth could e'er afford ; Can the sun be counted bright, "Tis his face makes heaven so fair; The bright sun shall cease to shine, But the glorious face divine Still shall bless the heavenly choir. Soon shall earthly pleasures die, Through eternal years the same. |