with anguish; nor because he may now die with honor; but because the choice of his heavenly Father is his own. ac Consider his state. peace with himself. counts are made up. His passions are composed. His days of mourning are at an end. No imaginary rectitude of life; no persuasion of his innocence; no review of a long catalogue of charities forms the basis of his tranquillity; but while conscience summons before him his multiplied sins, it is that he may perceive the efficacy of grace, and hear a voice saying to him, Son, be of good cheer; thy sins are forgiven thee. 1 from the commonwealth of Israel; a servant of the prince of darkness. The wrath of heaven hung suspended over him. The He is at sword of justice glistened from His afar, and as it approached, threatened instant and eternal death. He had no hiding place -no defence-no hope. Mercy intervened, and stayed impending vengeance. A time of respite was allowed him. He broke his covenant with deathannulled his agreement with hell, and bound himself to the service of God. Now he lies in peace on the bed of death. He bids defiance to the most powerful enmity, which can exist against him. He leans on the arm of the Lord, and realizes the truth of the declaration, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on He is at peace with the world. His name rises above reproach. His character is delivered from the pollution at tached to it, by the calumnies of the envious and malicious. No impoverished family rejoices in his exit; no oppressed widow, no orphans feel their sorrows passing away, with the hearse that conveys him to the tomb. Involuntary tears declare the common estimation of his worth; and the grave proves a sanctuary to protect his reputation from the assaults of malice. He is at peace with God. Compared with this, what are all the delights of life and health to one whose heart is at war with his conscience, and wiro keeps on his steady course to destruction in despite of the Spirit of God. I repeat it, the believer is at peace with God. His sins are forgiven; the blood of Jesus washes away his guilt; and he is entitled through grace, and the sanctification of the Spirit, to ineffable joys. Once he was an alien the cup of his joys. Fear will no more drive him to the verge of despair, nor hope hold out an almost extinguished taper to light him through the dreary apartments of his prison. He is about to be delivered from a greater evil still; from sin-the prolific parent of all the misery in the universe. Sin though often foiled, and partially subdued; though meeting with decided and persevering opposition; is still the constant disturber of his breast while he lives on earth. He is obliged to see it in various situations, and contend with it under every variety of shape. It lurks in every corner, and fills his way to heaven with impediments. He LVII. earnestly longs for deliverance, and death delivers him. His victory is complete. The last words, that vibrate on his tongue, declare him conqueror over all his enemies. O death where is thy sting; O grave where is thy victory. Not only victory, but triumph awaits. him. He shall wear a crown that never fades. He shall be enthroned at the right hand of Jesus. He shall sit in judgment on those that have traduced him, and fought against the Church; and, when the Judge of quick and dead shall say to them Depart, he shall respond, Alleluia, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. S. S. REVIEWS. The Columbiad. (Concluded from p. 33.) We shall now present our readers with the theory of Mr. Barlow respecting the origin of the universe, of our world, and of the human race; a theory, which was not invented by him, but which has been received by modern Atheists generally, as the best scheme, on the whole, which they have been able to patch up. In the early parts of the Colum biad, there are several very intelligible hints of the poet's views on this great subject; but the full developement of them is reserved for the ninth book, as introductory to that great display of light, which is to pervade the earth in the political millennium. A part of the argument of this book is as follows: "Columbus inquires the reason of the slow progress of science, and its frequent interruptions. Hesper answers, that all things in the physical, as well as the moral and intellectual world, are progressive in like manner. He traces their progress from the birth of the universe to the pres ent state of the earth and its inhabitants; asserts the future advancement of society, till perpetual peace shall be established." From this account of the book we were led to expect an infidel cosmogony, at full length; nor were we disappointed. Any person who is desirous of comparing the silly dreams of modern Atheists with the sublime and authoritative account of the creation, as written by Moses, may here have as good an opportunity as could be wished. Columbus closes his first inquiry, as to the state and progress of man, in these lines: "Why did not bounteous nature at their birth Give all their science to these sons of earth, In worlds above thee, as in thine below. Nature herself (whose grasp of time and place Deals out duration and impalms all space) Moves in progressive march;" &c. &c. 1. 35-43. Thus Nature is exalted to the rank of Creator and Upholder of the universe. We quote the beginning of her creation as a great curiosity. It will answer several purposes; and will be useful, particularly, as a speci men of the "crude and crass" style, in which a great part of this The is written. poem "hand" mentioned in the first of the following lines, is the hand of Nature: "When erst her hand the crust of Chaos thir'd And forced from his black breast the bursting world, High swell'd the huge existence crude and crass, A formless hard impermeated mass; No light nor heat nor cold nor moist nor dry, But all concocting in their causes lie. Millions of periods, such as these her spheres Learn since to measure and to call their years, eyes to quite a new exhibition of the subject. "And mark thy native orb! though later born, Though still unstored with light her silver horn, As seen from sister planets, who repay Far more than she their borrow'd streams of day, Yet what an age her shell-rock ribs attest! Her sparry spines, her coal-incumber'd breast! Millions of generations toil'd and died Then rose the proud phenomenon, the birth Most richly wrought, the favorite child of earth; But frail at first his frame, with nerves The conclusion of this whole description, supported by reference to many kinds of religion, is as follows: "Man is an infant still; and slow and late Must form and fix his adolescent state, Mature his manhood and at last behold His reason ripen and his force unfold. From that bright eminence he then shall cast A look of wonder on his wanderings past, Congratulate himself, and o'er the earth Firm the full reign of peace predestined at his birth." 1. 301-308. It may be well to refer, in this place, to the second book for further illustration of the scheme, which has been developed in the preceding quotations. In the argument of that book, we are told, that "Columbus demands the cause of the dissimilarity of men in different countries. Hesper replies, That the human body is composed of a due proportion of the elements suited to the place of its first formation; that these elements, differently proportioned, produce all the changes of health, sickness, growth and decay; and may likewise produce any other changes which occasion the diversity of men; that these elemental proportions are varied, not more by climate than temperature and other local circumstances; that the mind likewise is in a state of change, and will take its physical character from the body and from external objects." But where crude atoms disproportion'd rise, And cast their sickening vapors round the skies, Unlike that harmony of human frame, That moulded first and reproduced the same, The tribes ill formed, attempering to the clime, Still vary downward with the years of time; More perfect some, and some less perfect yield Their reproductions in this wondrous field; Till fixt at last their characters abide, Feeble or fierce, or groveling or sublime, |