Behold, where o'er thy head The lofty heavens are spread Thus far beyond thy thought his mercy reaches wide. And as the east diverges from the west, And that the flower most fair, Emblem of mortal life, droops at the passing blasts. On those who fear thee doth delight to rest; And from the heavens look'st down, O bless the Lord, ye seraphs! that fulfil Whose souls harmonious move in sweet accord! Your Maker's praise declare! O more than all, my soul, bless thou the Holy Lord!' The subject of Jonah is beautifully treated, and were not the stanza defective in rhyme, the execution of the poem would be equal to the conception of it. • JONAH. "Go thou to Nineveh, Thou prophet of the Lord most high! The voice of her iniquities Hath pierc'd the lofty sky :- Tell her, ere forty days be o'er, Proud Nineveh shall be no more." Reluctant he departs. Did his heart bleed in pity? No!— Kings, princes, mourn'd the deep offence, Now that his powerful voice, Heaven-taught, had reach'd the sinner's heart, And, blessing Heaven, depart? Did not he join the hope, the prayer- Heaven's gracious thoughts his anger move, A shelter from the noontide heat; -- Short was his joy: the plant, For thousand and ten thousand souls, • There be, e’en now, who wield The tale of wrath to spread: O let them, warn'd by him, beware, Be to themselves severely true; Sorrowing, pronounce condemning words, And let those words be few; Their chiefest joy the joy of heaven, O'er love display'd, and sin forgiven.' VOL. XXVII. N.S. Our readers will perceive that we think very highly of the contents of this unpretending volume, as characterized by a considerable degree of originality, and a remarkably correct taste. We can readily believe that its humble leaves have 'cost' the Writer more Than they would dream of, in whose hands the pen The poetical merit of the volume will not, however, in the estimation of many of our readers, form its strongest recommendation. The truly devotional spirit which it breathes in language that cannot be mistaken, renders it unnecessary that we should add a word to ensure its extensive circulation. We even hesitate as to taking another specimen from so small a volume; but the following poem has pleased us so much that we shall venture to transcribe it. TRUST IN GOD. 'When summer suns their radiance fling 'But, worn and languid, day and night, Nor form of beauty can create, To look on all this scene of tears, As some preluding strain that tries Each plant of heavenly growth improv❜d: Wounding, with kind design to heal; Of Him who learn'd that cup to drink; In rapture on that blessed book Whose soothing words proclaim to thee, Then, with chang'd heart and stedfast mind, Art. IX. The Final State of the Heathen; an Essay read at the Annual Meeting of Ministers educated in Hoxton Academy, June 29, 1825; and published at their Request. By John Burder, M.A. 8vo. pp. 36. Price Is. THIS HIS is a very able and judicious essay on a subject of considerable difficulty. That difficulty arises, in part, from the overwhelming nature of the fact, from which the mind of every thoughtful and benevolent person would gladly make its escape; that hundreds of millions are living and dying, and thousands of millions have lived and died, in the deplorable and hopeless condition of heathen darkness. No view that can be taken of this appalling and momentous fact can be altogether satisfactory, inasmuch as it connects itself with that fathomless subject, the Origin of Evil. But still, to those who regard the Holy Scriptures as a perfect and sufficient Rule of Faith, it must be a most interesting inquiry, what is the precise information which they supply on this point; and this being ascertained, the vague, indefinite speculations in which it is natural to indulge, will at least be made to give way before the conviction-and here, at least, there is ground for satisfaction—that the Judge of the whole earth will "do right." The difficulties of the subject are by no means nor in any sense created by Revelation. They belong equally to what is called Natural Theology. The existence of heathenism is as much a stumbling-block to reason, as the final disposal of its victims. Whatever hypothesis may be adopted as an expedient for reconciling the reason to such a state of things, it must found itself on the revealed character of the Divine Being; for, in the absence of Revelation, no proof could be obtained, that the existence and perfections of God afford any security against the final ascendancy of evil, and the perpetuity of the misery it inflicts. But the existing fact is, in the eye of reason, apparently at variance with the perfection of the Divine Government; and how can the speculative inquirer hope to determine, therefore, apart from Revelation, what may, or may not, be consistent with the Divine perfections in the future world? Surely, the punishment of wickedness is less mysterious than the permission of its origin. The objection brought against Christianity, that the light of Revelation is not universal, has been ably refuted by Bishop Butler, who shews that the objection calls in question, not so much Revelation, as the moral government of God. A lurking atheistic scepticism on this point, however, is the true source of much of the doubt and perplexity relating to the subject in question. The vast numerical amount of the heathen population, is another consideration which seems to enhance the dif ficulties of the subject; although, in point of fact, they are not susceptible of being numerically multiplied, of being diminished or augmented by comparison. The imagination may impose upon the reason, by leading us to suppose that an object has contracted its dimensions, when it has only been thrown into more distant perspective, and placed in comparison with other objects. But, in this way, the final destruction of a whole world might be made to seem a comparatively small matter, taken in connexion with the existence of a countless number of happy worlds. And it is evident, that, unless all of the human race might justly have been left to perish, it is not conceivable that any can perish. The heathen are precisely in that state in which all the human race might and would have been but for the Mediatorial intervention. The comparative numbers of those who are still in this state, although a most |