Jews hardened themselves in unbelief, and God, in judgment," let them alone." He would have purged them, but they would not be purged, and so he forsook them and they "could not believe." And now, my friends, reverting to what we noticed at the outset, here is a lesson for those of you who think that it can never be too late to repent, here is a warning which you should ponder well. God is merciful, that is most true; but look you here, if he is not also a God of judgment; he waiteth to be gracious, that is no less true, but learn from what is here that he will not wait always. He will not cast out any one who comes to him, he has assured you of that, but behold, in this instance, that the grace may be forfeited which would enable you to come. These men could not believe," because their day was gone, and they had quenched the Spirit. They did not die, but they were doomed. You say that as long as there is life there is hope, and of no individual in particular can we presume to say the opposite, for "the secret things belong unto the Lord." But those men lived and there was no hope; and although we cannot tell when, or on whom, such a judgment is passed, we may believe that, of a truth, it is passed on many; and, if you would escape it, presume no more on the forbearance of God, but 66 now, even now, while it is called to-day, hearken to his voice." "Woe unto them that are at ease in Zion, that put far from them the evil time." A GLANCE AT OUR SACRED POETS. No. II. BY CHARLES MOIR, ESQ. I WILL commence my second section of the Sacred Poets with Francis Quarles, one of the most eminent religious writers of his time. His Emblems are well known. His style is quaint and rather conceited; but his piety seems most sincere. As a specimen of his style, I will extract the first Emblem: MY SOUL HATH DESIRED THEE IN THE NIGHT. With lengthen'd arms, to find a passage out, That I might catch those beams mine eye desires, And bathe my soul in these celestial fires! Like as the haggard, cloister'd in her mew, To scour her downy robes, and to renew Her broken flags, preparing t' overlook Jets oft from perch to perch, from stock to ground, At every glimpse, and darts at every grate : The sun she seeks, whose rising beams can fright After Francis Quarles, the next religious poet of note is George Herbert, a name again rising into deserved popularity with the lovers of sacred poetry, although his merits have been greatly underrated by many of our best critics. He has been well denominated"Holy George Herbert," as his productions evince a mind imbued with the true spirit of piety, and a heart wholly devoted to the cause of his Master. He was all his life a severe student, music being his biographer, tells us in his own quaint style, that “the only relaxation. Honest Isaac Walton, his faithful meaner sort of his parish did so love and reverence Mr Herbert, that they would let their ploughs rest when Mr Herbert's saint's bell rung to prayers, that they might also offer their devotions to God with him, and would then return back to their plough. And his holy life was such, that it begot such reverence to God and to him, that they thought themselves the happier when they carried Mr Herbert's blessing back with them to their labours." In addition to his "Temple, or Sacred Poems," Herbert published a prose work of great literary value, entitled "The Country Parson, his Character and Rule of Holy Life." From his sacred poems I extract the following beautiful verses: I aspire To a full consent. 1 affect to own, To the throne of grace. And can shoot, And can hit from far! Who can 'scape his bow? That which wrought on thee, Brought thee low, Needs must work on me. Throw away thy rod, Though man frailties hath; Thou art God, Throw away thy wrath. According to strict priority of date, Quarles and Herbert should have preceded Drummond and King, with whom I closed my first paper, but even at the risk of being a little out of place, rather than lose these quaint old poets, without whose names even such a hurried glance as I am now giving at our Sacred Poets would be imperfect I have inserted them here. As they could not be passed over without remark, as little could I linger by their garden of sweets without plucking a flower or two, with which to grace my hasty chaplet. The next name that presents itself is that of the "Master Genius" of sacred poetry, the divine Milton whose "Soul was like a star, and dwelt apart.", It is difficult, indeed, to convey in an extract any idea of the splendour of his conceptions, or to impress upon the reader, the high-souled majesty and beauty of his style. The passage I have selected, however, is one unsurpassed by any other in the whole range of British poetry. It is in every sense sublime, and breathes the true spirit of poetic inspiration. ADAM AND EVE'S MORNING HYMN. These are thy glorious works, Parent of good, In these thy lowest works: yet these declare Him first, Him last, Him midst, and without end. Sure pledge of day, that crown'st the smiling morn And when high noon hast gained, and when thou fall'st. And ye five other wand'ring fires that move, Of Nature womb, that in quaternion run And nourish all things; let your ceaseless change His praise, ye winds, that from four quarters blow, Bear on your wings, and in your notes his praise. To hill or valley, fountain or fresh shade, Hail, universal Lord, be bounteous still To give us only good; and if the night From his fugitive pieces the following beautiful sonnet is culled: ON THE MASSACRE OF THE PROTESTANTS IN Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughter'd saints, whose bones The vales redoubled to the hills, and they To Milton succeeds Henry Vaughan, from whom I extract the following interesting verses. He was of Welsh origin, and educated for the bar, but left it for the profession of physic. Campbell, in his specimens of British poets, speaks rather disparagingly of Vaughan, yet has condescended to borrow from him, as will be seen from the following, which certainly looks somewhat like plagiarism. In Vaughan's poem on "The Rainbow" which follows, will be found these lines: The youthful world's gray fathers, in one knot Campbell, in his beautiful poem on the same subject, says, When o'er the green undeluged earth Campbell, however, can well afford to lose this fine idea in a poem where new beauties start up in every stanza. Now to Vaughan's beautiful lines TO THE RAINBOW. Still young and fine, but what is still in view From this extract, I will now turn to another poem by the same author, if possible still finer than the preceding. EARLY RISING AND PRAYER. When first thy eyes unveil, give thy soul leave Dawn with the day; there are set awful hours Which must be carried on, and safely may: I will now pass on to John Pomfret, who flourished towards the close of the sixteenth century, and with him close my present paper. His poetry is not considered to be of a very high cast: one of his pieces, however, The Choice,' is said by Southey, although he cannot account for it, to be the most popular poem in the English language. The following extract is from a piece entitled, 'A Prospect of Death,' and will be found to possess much of the same train of thought, and quaint turn of expression, which is found in our early poets: Since we can die but once, and after death To endless joys, or everlasting woes: Genesis ix, 16, For certainly we must, As we are born, return to dust: 'Tis the last point of many lingering years: Whither, we fain would know; But human understanding cannot show. Strange apprehensions in the mind; Fills it with restless doubts, and wild debates, servable in all the productions of nature, as, for instance, in the vegetable kingdom, where plants, trees, and corns, had all been reduced to one single kind of the same size, texture, colour, and taste; or suppose the animal kingdom to have furnished only one species or class, of the same uniform structure, qualities, and habits; or conceive a condition of things in which there was no variety in the climates of the earth, no distinction of elements and seasons, no diversity of hill and dale, river and mountain; and how different, under all this, would have been our notions of the Author of nature, where the whole would seem to be the effect of rigid and inviolable fate, unvarying in the direction, and limited in the application of its forces! Constructed as things are, there is not only boundless extent, but variety without confusion-complexity with the nicest arrangement and disposition of parts-dissolution and decay, with all the means of re-construction, vitality, and beauty, infinitely multiplied as the productions of nature, mighty in wisdom, wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working. Nor is this all. If there are light and darkness in the natural scheme of things, so are there in the moral; if mountain and valley abound in the one, there is prosperity contrasted with adversity in the other; if there are heat and cold to give agreeable variety in the former, so in the latter there are the manifestations of love and anger to cherish our good, and to repress the indulgence of our evil, propensities. In commencing this series of papers, it was my in--and all demonstrating that He who made the worlds is tention to have confined myself to one or two short lyrical pieces from each author, and in no instance to have trenched upon their more elaborate poems. I find, however, with Milton, Pomfret, Blair, Thomson, &c., by following this plan, I could convey no correct idea of the particular style, and prevailing cast of thought, that distinguish their class of poetry. I have accordingly made extracts from the Paradise Lost' of Milton, and from one of Pomfret's more extended pieces, and intend to follow out this plan with the poets whose peculiar style cannot possibly be conveyed by extracting from their shorter effusions. RECORDS OF CREATION. CONTRASTS. BY THE REV. JOHN ANDERSON, D.D., Minister of Newburgh. THE observations contained in our last paper, have reference to the comparative excellence of the works as well as the dispensations of God, whether in nature or under the economy of grace. We observed the order in which they succeed to, or rise one above another, which clearly proves a gradation to be progressive, and extending to other and higher systems of being than any which fall within our limited knowledge. The general order of the universe and progression of the divine dispensations are not appealed to as affording compensation for supposed defects and irregularities in particular sys tems. The parts are no less complete, in their respective spheres, than the whole. The meanest reptile is perfect in its kind; every flower is useful and beautiful in its situation; and throughout the whole system of being, up to the magnificence of the heavens, where one star differeth from another star in glory," all things, animate and inanimate, display the power, wisdom, and goodness of their divine Author. Another view presented to us, when we contemplate the works and dispensations of God, is the opposition or contrast in which they stand to one another. "Look upon all the works of the Most High," says the son of Sirach," and there are two and two, one against another." This principle prevails universally, and subserves, as a few observations will show, the wisest purposes in the scheme of Providence. 66 No person ever thinks of finding fault with the endless variety and the many striking contrasts thus subsisting in the natural government of God. How many objections and complaints, however, do we hear constantly uttered against the very same system as established under his moral government! But what is wise in the one must appear, upon the slightest reflection, to be the result of wisdom and benevolence in the other. How could we have known, for example, the value of our daily bread, without the painful feeling of appetite and hunger to admonish us of its necessity to our preservation and comfort? Would health have been esteemed so universally a blessing, if sickness had never been experienced? With what different emotions would we have hailed the cheerful day or invoked the glorious sun, if previously unacquainted with the gloom of night and the terrors of darkness! God "that made the world and all things therein, hath made of one blood all the nations of the earth," but among the same race of men, how different is their situation and circumstances, their moral attainments and endowments of mind, their domestic, social, and national privileges ! And what a motive is thereby furnished to stimulate the prosperous to still higher acquisitions; and what inducement to gratitude and thankfulness for all the blessings of their lot! This contrast of good and evil, of happiness and misery, of civilization and barbarity, gave rise to an ancient sect among the Persians, who believed in the existence of two different and opposite first principles in nature-one the author of good, and the other of evil-in reference to which doctrine God declares by his prophet Isaiah, I " form the light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil. I the Lord do all these things," by which he intimates that not only in the natural, but also in the moral world, He himself is the disposer of all events, and rules supreme. And such, accordingly, is actually the order of the more special dispensations of the Most High, setting up one kingdon and pulling down another, diffusing knowledge, and truth, and prosperity, in his quarter, and overrunning other parts of his dominion The works of God, from the least to the greatest, are not only infinite in number and variety, but they also stand in opposition one against another," and are thus diversified in every possible or conceivable way. Heat is contrasted with cold, light with dark-with barbarism, superstition, and decay. The judg ness, summer with winter, fire with water, life with death. And from this arrangement of things do we not justly infer the power, wisdom, and infinite resources of the divine mind? Had there been a uniformity ob ments which, from time to time, were sent upon his own people, seemed only to render them better prepared for receiving his future mercies. After the experience of a desert land, and the waste-howling wilderness what must have been the joy of Israel "to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock, and to drink the pure blood of the grape !" After the great and strong wind, rending the mountains, and breaking in pieces the rock before the Lord, after the earthquake | and the fire, would not "the still small voice" be more attended to by the prophet? And after the types, the shadows, and the terrors of the law, in what strong and beautiful contrast stand the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ! Even now, a view of falsehood is permitted to contrast with truth, as darkness recommends the light; thus the impure and superstitious systems of the Heathen and Mahometan religion act as shades to set off to more advantage the purity and light of the true religion. We read of false prophets, of false apostles, and false Christs, and why were such permitted, but to try the faith and ingenuity of men, and that their gratitude might be the more excited, in being enabled to distinguish and acknowledge the true? Do not the very extravagances of the sceptic and the melancholy tendency of the gloomy genius of infidelity, stimulate the sincere Christian just the more to cast himself upon "the God of hope," that he may be filled the more with all peace and joy in believing? Let truth, in short, break like light from God, and be diffused equally and at once throughout the world, even as the beams of the sun; let error and falsehood have no existence, misery and dissatisfaction no place, and our mental faculties would decay for want of exercise, our moral affections languish, and the easy and abundant supply of every want lessen our gratitude for the gifts of Providence. Were gold the universal metal, and the diamond common as the dust of the earth, the one would lose much of its value, and the other would be deprived of nearly all its lustre. Thus, too, in contemplating the last dispensation of God to men-freed from the prison of the body, the dishonours of the grave, and the rottenness of corruption-how much more glorious to the soul will be the transition, how illustrious the contrast of a body incorruptible, and a life everlasting! When viewed in this light how benevolent must appear even the severest of the divine dispensations, how clear even the most obscure, what design and uniformity of purpose in the midst of seeming confusion and disorder! Creation is a scheme, where a thousand things, great and small, are linked together. Providence is a scheme, where one thing is set in opposition to another, what appears an imperfection or an evil being only a means either to produce or to enhance the knowledge of a good. Revelation is a scheme, which harmonizes and magnifies all the other doings and proceedings of God, causing all the jarring elements of life to subside into their proper places, and composing, out of its disunited parts, one harmonious whole. The law of gravitation pervades the natural scheme of things, without which the whole would become a rude and indigested mass of heterogeneous materials. The atonement of the Redeemer is the one pervading principle throughout the entire moral world, without which we could discover little but a series of incidents, without any union, purpose, or relation, but with which the most conflicting dispensations are explained, and the harshest vindicated, all influenced by one common cause, and tending to one common centre. Now that we know something of the interior structure of the earth, the arrangement and distribution of its rocky strata, we can see how the convulsive forces of nature have been made to contribute to the harmony and stability of the whole. The desolating flood has been let loose, and whole races of plants and animals have perished; but the sea having retired within its limits, their remains have been preserved, and now minister to the wants and comforts of man. Order has arisen out of chaos, and contrasted with the disruption and confusion of a former state of things, we have the fitness, adaptation, and beauty of the present. We object to the storms and rigours of winter, but out of these arise the purification of the elements, the source of pleasant summers, and plentiful harvests. We remark on the dark side of human nature, without considering the fair and the luminous which it was intended to illustrate; and, dwelling on the present moment and the evil which it embraces, we fail to anticipate the good that will result from the trial and exercise thus afforded to our faith. We consider as an end, what is only a beginning, and observe upon the parts without taking in the system to which they belong. We call that a disease, which God designs for a cure,-complain of a fall, which will only raise to greater happiness and prosperity, and, convulsed with the agonies of death, we fail to regard them as only the throes of an immortal spirit. While we lament the struggles and afflictions of our lot, God sees only the victory and the joy that will accrue to the triumphant saint; and while we shrink from the flames in which the martyr is consumed, God already beholds him in the blaze of heaven's light, and covered with a robe of glory. A Lazarus, loathsome with disease, feeds upon the crumbs that fall from the rich man's table, who is clothed in purple and fine linen, and fares sumptuously every day; but, in the future world the picture is reversed-the lazar reposes in the bosom of Abraham, and drinks of the pure river of the water of life-the votary of pleasure is in hell, consumed by the fire of his unhallowed desires, and denied even a drop of water to cool his tongue. Again, when we look to the agents which God employs for the accomplishment of his purposes, we find the same principle prevailing throughout the whole of his universal government. The earthquake and the volcano serve at once to destroy and to renovate, to cast down and to raise up. The pestilence and the famine carry desolation in their train, but God speedily renews the earth with beauty and covers it with plenty. A Moses or a Pharaoh, a Cyrus or a David, a Judas or a Paul, a Nero or a Constantine, equally promote the purposes of his will, and serve, in the way which he appoints, equally to bring about the ends of his righteous administration. The enemies of the truth have been made use of to purify and refine it; the weak things of the world to combat the strong; the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; the persecutions of the unbelieving to extend the knowledge of the faith; the blood of the martyrs to become the seed of the Church; and all, overruled by Supreme Wisdom, have contributed to exalt the name of the Redeemer, and to shew forth the glory of God. "Stand still, then, and consider the wondrous works of God. Dost thou know when God disposed them? Dost thou know the wondrous works of Him who is perfect in knowledge? Lo! these are parts of his ways, but how little a portion is heard of him." CHRISTIAN TREASURY. Eternity.-O Eternity! Eternity! how awful, how solemn, yet how desirable; nay, O how welcome art thou what is there in this world that makes it at all desirable? what do we toil and cling to it for? How infinitely preferable is one single hour's communion with the Lord Jesus Christ.—Mrs SIMPSON. (Diary) Persecution Purifies the Church.-None but a believer knows what it is to bear the contempt and derision of an ungodly world, and none but a believer can bear it. It is one of the touchstones of sincerity, the application of which has often been the means of separating the precious from the vile, and unmasked the self-confident professor to his own confusion. Oh how many make a fair profession and appear good soldiers of Jesus Christ until the hour of danger proves them deserters.BRIDGES, MISCELLANEOUS. in Shekomeko, but in several of the adjacent localities. It was delightful to behold numbers of the poor red men coming from distant places to hear of that God who became man, and, as they expressed it, “loved the the devil and the service of sin." As was to be expectIndians so much that he gave his life to save them from ed, however, this did not fail to arouse the enmity of the carnal mind, and, as often happens, the preachers of the new doctrine became the especial objects of attack. In these circumstances, the remarks which the converts, on many occasions, made, were simple, yet striking. A trader having endeavoured to persuade one of them that the brethren were not privileged teachers, the In"It may be so, but I know what they have told me, and what God has wrought within Look at my poor countrymen there, lying drunk before your door. Why do you not send privileged teachers to convert them? Four years ago I also lived like a beast, and not one of you troubled himself about But when the brethren came they preached the cross of Christ, and I have experienced the power of his blood, so that sin has no longer dominion over me. Such are the teachers we want."-Brown's History of Missions. me. me. Jewish Sacrifices.-Among the ritual observances of the Jewish law was the consecration of the ashes of the red heifer, and the use made of them by mixing them with water, to be employed for the ceremonial purifications by sprinkling the unclean. This is of the more importance, as the rite certainly had direct reference to Christ and things done under the Gospel. It has been well remarked, that the water used for purifying owed even its typical qualities to the ashes of the heifer mixed with it. St. Paul makes a very distinct allusion to it in the Epistle to the Hebrews, chap. ix. dian sagely replied, For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and 13, 14: the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works" (sinful deeds) "to serve the living God." In Numbers xix. the reader will find a full account of this ritual observance, and the various purposes for which the ashes were to be used. Το these ceremonials the later Jews had made very considerable additions. Many rules were appointed for guidance in selecting the heifer, which was shut up seven days before the sacrifice. The priest appointed to officiate was prepared by a variety of ceremonials, and the animal was sacrificed on the side of the valley of Kedron, towards the Mount of Olives. The heifer being killed and burned, the ashes were gathered up | with great care, pounded, and sifted. One-third was laid up in a place on the mountain for the sprinkling the people, one-third delivered to the twenty-four courses of priests for their purifications, and the remainder kept in a chamber of the temple. The lengths to which the later Jews carried their superstitious observances, in the application of these ashes, are too absurd to be mentioned. According to their tradition, nine red heifers had been sacrificed: one by Eleazer, the son of Aaron; one by Ezra; seven others between the captivity and the destruction of the temple by the Romans; and they expect that a tenth will be burned in the days of their Messiah. That seven should have been required during the last five hundred years, and only two during the preceding period of a thousand, shows how the ceremonial observances had been multiplied. We have already noticed that the sacrifice of this heifer was typical of the death of Christ; we may further state that learned men have pointed out several circumstances, by which this sacrifice and its ceremonials poured contempt on some heathen usages, especially by the sacrifice of an animal held sacred by the Egyptians. And by confining the use of consecrated water to one case, that of defilement by a dead body, the use of similar lustrations by consecrated water on other occasions was checked. In the other cases of general occurrence, the water used for purification was selected without any ceremonial observances; but still they expressed a due honour to the presence of Jeho val, constantly representing how needful it was for those honoured by a near approach to the Divine Presence, to keep themselves pure, and cleansed from all filthiness of flesh and Spirit, that they might honourably serve a God so holy and so pure. The preaching of" Christ crucified" the only effective preaching.In the year 1739 The United Brethren" commenced a mission to the North American Indians in the neighbourhood of New York. They formed a settlement at Shekomeko, a town about twenty-five miles to the eastward of North River. After persevering in the midst of many distressing discouragements, they had the happiness, in 1742, to see the good fruits of their labours, and several of the Indians were baptized. The Gospel now made rapid progress, not only Presents. Among eastern nations it always has been usual to bring presents when people visit one another; they never appear before a prince or great man without having something to offer. We may find instances of this in the Bible; as Jacob, see Gen. xliii. 11; also Ehud, Hazael, Naaman, Abigail, the wife of Jeroboam; also the wise men who came from the east to see Jesus Christ, and many others. This mark of respect still is always necessary, and, however small or mean the gift may be, it is accepted as a proof of attention. Thus, 1 Sam. ix. 7, we observe Saul's anxiety; "If we go, what shall we bring the man of God?-there is not a present," &c. At length his servant, producing the fourth part of a shekel, (about sixpence,) said, "That will I give to the man of God." Modern travellers tell us, that, even when poor people visit, they bring a flower, or fruit, or some such tride. One person tells us of a present of fifty radishes; and when Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller, had agreed, at the request of a chief, to take a poor sick Arab with him for a great distance, the poor man presented him with a dirty cloth, containing about ten dates. Bruce remarks, that he mentions this to show how important and necessary presents are considered in the east; whether they be dates or diamonds, a man thinks it necessary to offer something. This may explain Rabshakeh's advice, 2 Kings xviii. 31. The higher the rank of the persons to whom the present is brought, the greater it is expected to be. The Queen of Sheba, Naaman, and Berodach Baladan, offered large presents. Thus the offering of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, all of which were very precious, presented by the wise men of the east, was a mark of their high respect for Him to whose presence they were led by the wondrous star which had appeared.-Munners and Customs of the Jews. CONTENTS.-On Godliness. By Rev. G. Parker.-Biographical Published by JOHN JOHNSTONE, at the Offices of the ScoTTISH CHRISTIAN HERALD, 2, Hunter Square, Edinburgh, and 19, Glassford Street, Glasgow; JAMES NISBET & Co., HAMILTON, ADAMS & Co., and R. GROOMBRIDGE, London; W. CURRY, Junr. & Co., Dublin; and W. M'COMB, Belfast; and sold by the Booksellers and Local Agents in all the Towns and Parishes of Scotland; and in the principal Towns in England and Ireland. 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