And ments of our condition, when we think of Him, who, though "the Lord of glory," "had not where to lay His head." if it be our lot to undergo evils of more than ordinary magnitude, we are animated under them by reflecting, that we are hereby more conformed to the example of our blessed Master: though we must ever recollect one important difference, that the sufferings of Christ were voluntarily borne for our benefit, and were probably far more exquisitely agonising than any which we are called upon to undergo. Besides, it must be a solid support to us amidst all our troubles to know, that they do not happen to us by chance; that they are not even merely the punishment of sin; but that they are the dispensations of a kind Providence, and sent on messages of mercy-" The cup that our Father hath given us, shall we not drink it?""Blessed Saviour! by the bitterness of Thy pains we may estimate the force of Thy love; we are sure of Thy kindness and compassion; Thou wouldst not willingly call on us to suffer; Thou hast declared unto us, that all things shall finally work together for good to them that love Thee; and therefore, if Thou so ordainest it, welcome disappointment and poverty, welcome sickness and pain, welcome even shame, and contempt, and calumny. If this be a rough and thorny path, it is one in which Thou hast gone before us. Where we see Thy footsteps we cannot repine. Meanwhile, Thou wilt support us with the consolations of Thy grace; and even here Thou canst more than compensate to us for any temporal sufferings, by the possession of that peace which the world can neither give nor take away." Looking unto Jesus!" "The Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of God." From the scene of our Saviour's weakness and degradation, we follow Him, in idea, into the realms of glory, where "He is on the right hand of God; angels, and princi THE BLESSED HOPE. 359 palities, and powers being made subject unto Him." But though changed in place, yet not in nature; He is still full of sympathy and love; and having died "to save His people from their sins," ""He ever liveth to make intercession for them." Cheered by this animating view, the Christian's fainting spirits revive. Under the heaviest burdens he feels his strength recruited; and when all around him is dark and stormy, he can lift up an eye to heaven, radiant with hope, and glistening with gratitude. At such a season, no dangers can alarm, no opposition can move, no provocations can irritate. He may almost adopt, as the language of his sober exultation, what in the philospher was but an idle rant; and, considering that it is only the garment of mortality which is subject to the rents of fortunewhile his spirit, cheered with the Divine support, keeps its place within, secure and unassailable-he can sometimes almost triumph at the stake, or on the scaffold, and cry out amidst the severest buffets of adversity, "Thou beatest but the case of Anaxarchus." But it is rarely that the Christian is elevated with this "joy unspeakable and full of glory:" he even lends himself to these views with moderation and reserve. Often, alas! emotions of another kind fill him with grief and confusion and conscious of having acted unworthy of his high calling, perhaps of having exposed himself to the just censure of a world ready enough to spy out his infirmities, he seems to himself almost "to have crucified the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame." But let neither his joys intoxicate, nor his sorrows too much depress him. Let him still remember that his chief business while on earth is not to meditate, but to act; that the seeds of moral corruption are apt to spring up within him, and that it is requsite for him to watch over his own heart with incessant care; that he is to discharge with fidelity the duties of his particular station, and to conduct himself, according to his measure, after the example of his blessed Master, whose meat and drink it was to do the work of : His heavenly Father; that he is diligently to cultivate the talents with which God has entrusted him, and assiduously to employ them in doing justice and shewing mercy, while he guards against the assaults of any internal enemy. In short, he is to demean himself, in all the common affairs of life, like an accountable creature, who, in correspondence with the Scripture character of Christians, is "waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ." Often, therefore, he questions himself, "Am I employing my time, my fortune, my bodily and mental powers, so as to be able to render up my account with joy, and not with grief?' Am I 'adorning the doctrine of God. my Saviour in all things;' and proving that the servants of Christ, animated by a principle of filial affection, which renders their work a service of perfect freedom, are capable of as active and as persevering exertions, as the votaries of fame, or the slaves of ambition, or the drudges of avarice?" SACRED POETRY. MATTHEW PRIOR. IN the eighteenth century, some valuable additions were made to our stores of sacred minstrelsy, by authors who, in the stricter sense of the word, were scarcely Christian poets. Perhaps it is for this reason that Mr Montgomery, in his "Christian Poet," has given no specimen of Prior; but we think it would be almost as unfair to ignore his "Solomon," as to deprive our readers of Pope's "Messiah." Like an airy upland in the midst of an unwholesome jungle, such a production is a welcome retreat from the frivolity and ribaldry in the midst of which it occurs; nor should it lessen the value of the work that most of its thoughts and images are borrowed from Ecclesiastes and the Canticles. The form of a soliloquy, into which the author has thrown the poem, makes the three books rather tedious; but the reader's perseverance is often rewarded by passages vigorously emphasised or finely pointed, and the flattest intervals, with their melodious verse and happy diction, convey a certain pleasure, even in the midst of the prevailing monotony. MATTHEW PRIOR was born July 21, 1664, and died at Wimple, near Cambridge, then the seat of Lord Oxford, September 18, 1721. The Vanity of Science. Forced by reflective reason, I confess Alas! we grasp at clouds, and beat the air, Vexing that spirit we intend to clear. Can thought beyond the bounds of matter climb? In vain we lift up our presumptuous eyes To what our Maker to their ken denies : Seduces only the bewilder'd mind To fruitless search of something yet behind. How narrow limits were to Wisdom given! Earth she surveys; she thence would measure Heaven : Remember that the cursed desire to know, Castle-Building. The power of wealth I tried, And all the various luxe of costly pride. I to the limits of my court confined. |